By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The Centralia Police Department is now recruiting for up to five reserve police officer positions.
A reserve law enforcement academy is tentatively scheduled to begin in April, with graduation in September.
Applications for the volunteer positions are due by Feb. 1.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office will be tentatively co-hosting the training.
The program is sponsored through the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission.
Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Stacy Brown says the academy requires a minimum of 249.5 hours of course work and certifies individuals to work as reserve officers throughout the state.
“Reserve deputies typically work with full-time deputies in performance of their duties,” Brown states. “Tenured reserves who have passed appropriate training are also allowed to perform patrol duties by themselves with minimal supervision.”
Centralia police describe the testing process as including a physical ability test, oral board interview, background investigation, polygraph (lie detector test) and psychological testing.
Persons interested in becoming part of the sheriff’s office reserve program may contact Deputy Matt Schlecht at mathew.schlecht@lewiscountywa.gov or at 360-748-9286.
Those interested in becoming involved with Centralia’s program can contact Sgt. Carl Buster at cbuster@cityofcentralia.com or 360-330-7680. Centralia’s applications can be downloaded from http://www.cityofcentralia.com/files/Job%20Application%20-%20Fill%20in%20Form.pdf [1]