Mason City’s city administrator says work continues to improve police department recruiting

MASON CITY — Mason City’s city administrator says work continues to improve recruiting for the city’s police force, but there’s still a long way to go.

Aaron Burnett says the efforts by the police department to work with individuals who are interested in a position to get them through the application and testing process have proven to be successful. “We continue to see retirements due to people either aging out or just hitting normal retirement age, which is always tough to lose that skill. It is nice to be able to report that I think we’re seeing success in that recruitment space and increased interest, also including some certified officers that are showing interest.”

Burnett says despite that good news, the department is still down about ten officers from full staffing.  “When I say things are looking better, it means we are actually matching up with retirements. We’ve got one upcoming, we just had one not too long ago, long-term sergeants and whatnot that have served the community very well, but unfortunately there’s just a large group that’s going through retirement.”

Burnett made his comments at last night’s meeting of the City Council.