San Luis Police Department facing officer shortage

SAN LUIS, Ariz. (KYMA) - A local police department is facing challenging times due to an officer shortage.

It's even busier with the increase of traffic during agriculture and winter visitor season.

The San Luis Police Department currently has two to three officers and one supervisor per shift, when they should have four officers and one supervisor per shift.

To fill those empty spots, motorcycle units are modifying their duties.

“We are doing the exact same thing with the K9 officers. They are also complementing most of the day shifts and complementing some of the night shift as well, so we can a decent coverage throughout the most busy hours of the day," said Lt. Emmanuel Botello

San Luis police say they rely on civilian employees and a private company to help with traffic, especially during peak hours when there are long lines to cross the border into Mexico.

“Transit control officers helping out with traffic control four of those civilian employees and the city of san luis we also have a contract with a third party company who is helping us doing traffic control," said Lt. Botello.

To ease the officer shortage, San luis police recently hired a couple of officers.

“Definitely recruiting right now we are hiring currently we have two officers fresh out of the academy, they are starting the field training program, we got two going into the academy this coming month," explained Lt. Botello.

San luis police say the are still recruiting. They have a total of eight more vacancies left to fill.