The Santa Cruz Police Department has three more added to the
ranks. On Thursday July 18th
we held a ceremony to “Swear In” our 3 new hires. Here they are:
Brent Northrup
Brent is "pinned" by Sergeant Jon Bush
Brent worked for our department from 1996 to 2006. He relocated to meet some family obligations
and worked for Roseville PD for the past 7 years. We are glad to have him back. Brent is a skilled officer with an expertise
in cybercrime.
Nick Kramer
Nick is sworn-in by Chief Vogel
Nick has been working in the wine industry for the past 5
years. He is a local having graduated
from Watsonville High in 2002. Nick put
himself through the police academy while working full time…a daunting task
indeed requiring dedication and extremely hard work.
Kelly Hobbs
Kelly is sworn-in by Chief Vogel
Kelly is our newest Community Service Officer. She will work with our uniformed non sworn
staff in our parks and downtown. Kelly
is also a local area person having graduated from San Lorenzo Valley High in 2008. Kelly has been working in retail while
attending college.
All three of our new hires hold a college degree for various
subjects. We are excited to have them as
part of our team. We feel they will be a
great fit for our department and community.
While this is welcomed news, we still have a ways to
go. Currently we have 8 openings, in spite
of hiring these 3. We also have 3 others
in the Police Academy. While the 3 in
the Academy are “hired” (and not considered open positions) they do not
increase out net available officers until they complete their training sometime
around February 2014. Adding to our
staffing shortages is that we currently have 5 officers out on serious
long-term injuries. While they are
working hard to get back, their time away reduces our available staff. In total we have 16 either open or positions
not available. This puts significant
strain on the staff that is working.
Help is on the way, as we have 6 other perspective
candidates in various stages of the hiring process. They still have significant hurdles to cross,
such as background investigations, medical and psychological screening as
well.
Meanwhile we are quite pleased to welcome Brent, Nick and
Kelly to our family. They certainly have
their work cut out for them.
