Four Mississippi State police officers left for Camp Shelby Sunday, bringing the number of activated officers in the department to six.
Police chief Tom Johnson said the department might face some rough times in their absence, but he doesn’t expect coverage of the campus to decrease.
Johnson rode his motorcycle along with the departing troops of the Starkville-based 114th Field Artillery Regiment Sunday morning on their way out of town.
“There’s always that bittersweet sadness when someone leaves and you know they’re going to be gone for a while,” Johnson said.
The officers will likely spend several months training at Camp Shelby and other U.S. military bases before serving in the Middle East for a year or more.
The department has already filled some of the positions, assistant chief Georgia Lindley said. The department now has 21 officers and is seeking two more. The department can hire a maximum of 26 officers, but Johnson said that number is almost never reached.
Even though the department is filling the vacancies with temporary help, Johnson said acclimating them to a university environment will take time and effort.
“All of the people you bring in are going to be brand new so you lose that wealth of experience that those people who have been activated had,” he said.
Johnson said that with festivals, football games and fraternity parties, fall is the busiest time of year for the Police Department. Dealing with officer fatigue, he said, will probably be the largest obstacle.
Johnson said most of the replacement officers have police or military backgrounds.
Even with their help, the department will be understaffed, he said- a common problem in a state ranked lowest in most economic categories.
Underfunding for departments and low pay mean that finding a qualified officer to fill a position can take months, he said.
“It’s tough because the salary and the benefits I don’t consider to be competitive,” he said.
The four officers who left Sunday are Jonathon Wolfe, Jarred Miley, Rodney Thompson and Eddie Scales. Kevin Lindsey is training with his unit in Tennessee and Kenny Edmonds is training in the military police.
The police department would rehire the officers when they return. The temporary officers serving in their stead agreed to give up their jobs when the soldiers’ return, Johnson said.
Johnson, who served in the Coast Guard himself, said he knows it is hard to serve in a war-torn country and worry about a family at home, as his officers serving in the Middle East will undoubtedly do.
Johnson and the other remaining staffers at the department said they would take care of the soldiers’ families while they were gone.
Activated officers should focus on training and getting home as soon as possible, he said.
“We want them all back safe and sound, and focusing on their jobs is how they’re going to stay safe and sound,” he said.