Dec 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 12

and teachers at the Covenant
School. The killer murdered three
9-year-olds and three adults and
left a community reeling in the
aftermath of the massacre.
“On behalf of the Metro Nashville
Police Department, there
are patriots that I’ll accept this
for, but patriots like our friend
and detective on our team —
Eric Wegner — he ran outside
and was the stimulus of getting
shot. He got shot at, and that’s
what we needed to find what
we needed and the work that we
needed to do. So being a patriot
is going for others, respecting
each other, respecting your
country and most importantly,
putting your God first,” Det. Sgt.
Jeff Mathes said on behalf of the
other officers.
PA. POLICE ACADEMY: CA-
DETS HAVE MORE OPTIONS AS
DEPARTMENT OFFERS POUR IN
By Dave Sutor
The Tribune-Democrat
JOHNSTOWN, PA. — A notice
from the North Las Vegas Police
Department advertising a hiring
bonus up to $40,000 for new
officers is tacked to the Penn
Highlands Police Academy’s bulletin
board.
Below it, there is a message
from the Pittsburgh Bureau of
Police offering to bring its own
recruitment and civil service
testing teams to the academy at
Pennsylvania Highlands Community
College in Richland Township.
New job advertisements frequently
arrive with starting pay
in the range between $50,000
and $100,000. Departments call
to ask if any soon-to-be graduates
are ready for jobs.
And, of course, chiefs within
the academy’s coverage area of
Cambria, Somerset, Bedford and
Blair counties often visit, hoping
to convince cadets to pursue law
enforcement careers close to
home.
That proactive nationwide
recruitment is much different
than the process Dennis Miller,
the academy’s director, went
through early in his three- decade
law enforcement career.
He remembers testing with
more than a hundred other candidates,
all hoping to land one of
the handful of available openings
for beginning pay that was,
in his words, “not that great.”
“The whole field has completely
changed,” Miller said.
Departments, both large and
small, are trying to adapt to
that transforming world of law
enforcement in order to provide
necessary protection to their
communities.
For example, the Johnstown
Police Department is budgeted
for 41 total officers this year, according
to information provided
by the city. But the department
currently has only 31 active-duty
officers, with another expected
to leave by the end of the month.
68 The Blues 40th Anniversary Issue