Lake Ozark (Mo.) Police Dept. looking to add a hiring incentive

LAKE OZARK, Mo. (KY3) - The Lake Ozark Police Department is looking to add a hiring incentive to get more officers on the road.

“We’re just really trying to recruit and build the team we have and get the right people in. We felt like by offering this that it would bring some experience in already, people through the training process, we’d be able to do some in-house training, and they’d be able to start on the road right away for us,” said Chief Jeff Christensen.

Officer Isaiah Huff has been a patrol officer for Lake Ozark for a little more than a year. He says it gets busy in the summer.

“In the summertime, and what I mean summertime, I mean, from February to September, we have a lot of events that are fun to work, you get to interact with a lot of people,” said Officer Huff.

He hopes the new incentive will bring in great co-workers.

”It has the potential to hopefully bring in a lot of good officers. We need people because during the summertime,” said Officer Huff.

The police chief asks for a $2,500 incentive for two new hires. They would get $1,500 upfront and another $1,000 after six months. He got the idea from some of his past jobs.

For Officer Huff, he says this community is more than just a job for anyone who applies.

”Being a police officer in Lake Ozark is more than a job for me. It’s the same streets that I grew up on. So there’s everywhere that I patrol. I can remember a memory or a time in my life when I was on that road. It’s more than a job for me,” said Officer Huff.

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