LOWELL -- Two hundred and thirty-three police officers and 103,000 residents.
That is where things stand in Lowell after the Police Department boosted its ranks by 10 this past week with the swearing in of six new academy graduates and four officers who transferred from other departments.
Police Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee says he needs even more officers, but will have to wait. "We're still significantly below where we want to be," he said.
The city has budgeted for 244 officers, still significantly down from what it once was, but it will be at least May before all of those positions can be filled, according to Lavallee.
The officers hired from other departments via a process known as "lateral transfer" will hit the streets at the end of this week, and need only four weeks of training under another officer, compared to 14 weeks for those fresh from the academy.
Lavallee wanted to hire even more officers via lateral transfer, but the lure of more excitement in a bigger city and a department that is spoken highly of in police circles apparently was not enough.
All four of the new officers said the Lowell Police Department's professional reputation helped draw them here.
The four officers who qualified and accepted jobs in Lowell are Steven Alexander, who worked for Melrose police; Ron Reid Jr., who worked for North Andover police; Jennifer Costa, who worked for Bedford police; and Chad Collins, who worked for Marblehead police.
Reid comes to Lowell to follow in the footsteps of his father, Ron Reid, who wore the badge in the 1980s.
Lavallee said he is looking into grant money to get even more officers on the streets, and hopes to build the force even further once another police academy can get started in May.
The lateral transfers were sworn in Wednesday in the Mayor's Reception Room at City Hall. After a weeklong orientation program, they begin patrolling under the supervision of a veteran officer this week.
In four weeks, they hit the streets on their own. "I'm looking forward to it," Collins said.
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