Hello, I am Terry Wright, Director of Burwick Community TV. Welcome to News from Burwick Town Departments. Today I am here with Chief Timothy Town of the Burwick Police Department. My goal is to learn more about the police department, the people who work here, and the types of training involved. At the end of our show, Chief Town will have time to tell us what he wants us to know about the police and the police department. Can you tell me a little bit about the staff that you have here? How many full-time, how many part-time, and how many are coming on? We have 12 full-time employees. When I say employees, that would be the law enforcement side. We have a full-time civilian secretary, Mrs. Dunn, Denise Dunn. We have a part-time animal control officer. We also have two reserve police officers. And we have three open reserve police officers positions at this time. Wow, three open. Are you having a hard time finding staff? We are in regards to the part-time employment, the reserve officer program. That has changed considerable amount over the last 10 years. It is a lot more labor intensive for somebody to get involved in law enforcement on a part-time basis. It is a kind of dwindled down the hiring pool for that. So finding part-time employees right now is very difficult. I am sure that is all over the state. It is statewide. Really law enforcement in general nationally is in a little bit of a crisis when it comes to hiring. The newest staff members, can you tell us who those people are? The two newest, we have Brendan Reale. Brendan is a local boy. He grew up here in Burwick. He went to Noble High School. He worked for our department for a short period of time as a part-time person. He is a tuition student. He put himself through the police academy, which is 18 weeks long, through a program. He pays his way through the academy prior to being hired by an agency. When he graduates, he is kind of like what you could consider like a free agent. He is up for grabs. He was hired by Wells, Maine, and worked there for about a year. Then he came back to Burwick. He has been working with us for a little over a year now, full-time capacity. That is fantastic. We are very happy to have him. Training. That is something that is ongoing for sure. I know everyone has to take it. Can you give our viewers an idea of what that entails? Yes, sure. The continuing training by statute, we have to complete 20 hours of training each year. There are a few topics that the state actually mandates that we cover during that period. There are other electives that you can take based on your interests. It figures out to 20 hours a year mandatory through the state. There are piles of additional trainings that we have to do through Maine Department of Labor. Training on our policies, all the tools that we use, all have to be refreshed every year. We are really constantly in this training mode where we are picking the way at this list continually. When the calendar year closes, it starts all over again. Are the trainings done here on line? Do they have to travel to go to them? The training room that we are actually in now, we have been using as much as possible soliciting training from outside to come to Burwerk. What that helps Burwerk do is by letting them use our room basically. We end up getting one or two slots in that training for free. We have been having a lot of what I would call open trainings, agencies from across the street can come and train here with us. As far as training, I would say it never ever stops. Most of the training is done locally when I say locally in state. But we do travel occasionally for certain special equal forces. Thank you. Anything that you would like our viewers to know, things that you have heard people ask or that you would really like us to know. Sure. Well, if you are interested in being a part time law enforcement officer, you can certainly come in and see me, I can explain the process to you. If you are really interested and you have a chance to come in and see me if you go to the main criminal justice academy website, all the information about how to become a police officer is on that website, including dates as to when you can take some of the trainings that you would have to take. We are looking for part time people. I am very fortunate right now to have a full staff as far as full time employees, which is unique again across the state. It is pretty bleak as far as hiring. The other thing is that I think in time you will see I am going to try and set up so that the people in Burwick can meet each officer that works here at the police department. We will do a very brief segment. They can come in and tell you a little bit about themselves. That way you will have a chance to really get to know your local police department. Thank you very much. You are welcome.