KANNAPOLIS — During Monday night’s city council meeting in Kannapolis, Deputy Police Chief Chris Hill introduced six new officers for swearing in.
Hill noted that the new recruits had completed more than 900 hours of training during their recent Basic Law Enforcement Training or BLET, and that the new classes “are a bit more challenging than they have been, but they came through with flying colors.”
The new officers are Hudson Skinner, Gabriel Chandler, Cameron Blackwelder, Ethan Ratliff, Eric Velazquez and Xavier Gonzalez, and some were sworn in with family members holding the Bible for the ceremony, some by fellow officers and one by Chief Terry Spry.
The department is budgeted for 96 sworn officers, and these six new additions bring the count to 93, meaning there are currently three openings.
Hill said at the time the most recent BLET class started, “we were at full staffing, for a moment,” and so there are no recruits in the current class. But he said “when the next class begins in January, we are actively recruiting now for people who would be in that class.” And not only is the city willing to consider appropriate applicants without law enforcement experience, but they welcome lateral transfers of officers who are already certified, as all departments do.
Hill added that in additional to financial compensation for officers, “we work hard to build a family atmosphere here in our department that encourages people to stay,” an approach that he says goes back decades, and which Spry and he work to maintain.
