With two new hires, Brookfield Township Police Department is again up to full staffing.
The trustees on April 4 hired Ian McKnight to start April 16 and replace Cpl. Jay First, who left for a job at the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office, and Joshua Ellwood-Bellas to start May 1, filling the position created when voters approved a 1-mill replacement levy in November.
Police Chief Dan Faustino said he recruited McKnight and Ellwood-Bellas while they were attending the police academy at Kent State’s Trumbull campus. He brought them on as unpaid auxiliary officers, and then part-time patrolmen.
When it came time to hire full-time officers, they went through the same interview and assessment center process as outside applicants, Faustino said.
“They did really well,” he said.
McKnight and Ellwood-Bellas are riding with other officers as part of their training, and Faustino said he hopes to allow them to take shifts independently starting June 1.
That’s just in time for the department to temporarily lose officer Clayton Burrows, a military reservist who has been called up for a deployment that is supposed to last from June 6 into February.
McKnight and Ellwood-Bellas will start at $15.30 an hour.
With the hirings, the department has no part-time officers, Faustino said.