O’Fallon swears in new police officers

Police Chief Eric Van Hook introduced four new police officers new police officers at the Sept. 18 O’Fallon City Council meeting.

George Fender comes to OPD with 10 years experience with the Shiloh Police Department.

Cloee Frank had served with the Carbondale Police Department for is a four and a half years before joining OPD.

Justin Ellis was a patrolman with Grantfork Police Department and had been a full-time paramedic with the O’Fallon EMS.

Fender, Frank and Ellis began field training immediately after they were sworn in on Sept. 11, as they all have previous police experience

Another soon-to-be officer, Nicholas Luttrell, is currently at Southwestern Illinois College Police Academy and is expected to graduate in December. He earned a degree at Southeast Missouri State University recently.

“I congratulate each of these employees on their achievement and sincerely thank them for their dedication to our community. I look forward to seeing these men and women join the ranks of the other great O’Fallon officers,” said Mayor Herb Roach. “I am proud to say that with these hires, we have brought the police force back to full staffing for the first time in seven years.”

The department now has 47 officers.

“Being a police officer is a great and noble profession. The majority of police officers get up every day to do the right thing for the right reasons,” Van Hook said.

This story was originally published September 20, 2017 at 10:46 AM with the headline "O’Fallon swears in new police officers."