Training Officers Cost Police Time/Money

Casper, WY – The Wyoming Highway Patrol has commissioned ten new officers, including four from local police and sheriff's departments. One of them came from Casper and Police Chief Tom Pagel says it's common for people in his line of work to change jobs. He says it's especially common for officers to leave smaller departments. And Pagel says when someone leaves to take a new job, it has a significant impact. He says it puts a department short on manpower and requires the expenditure of time and money to get a new officer trained. Pagel says that could put a police agency behind for several months. He says if an officer does move to another department in Wyoming it isn't all bad because the investment of tax dollars isn't lost to other states.