By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

Though the Pontiac Police Department has been understaffed when it comes to officers, they’ve recently made three new hires to round out an officially full crew.

Chief Jim Woolford explained what the three new officers are doing.

“Our authorized strength is 18 and we’re at that right now. I have three new officers. Two of them are out of the academy and in field training on the street and you should see them out and about every day. Then I have one who is in the academy right now,” Woolford said.

Officers Greg Struck and Joshua Freese are in the middle of field training and Briana Wilkey, the department’s first female officer in awhile, is currently at the academy.

The Safe Passage program, which has been implemented in all police departments in Livingston County for more than a year is showing success in helping people find help in recovering from opiod drugs.

Woolford said as of now, his department has sent 24 people through to treatment.

“As with most drug addiction programs, most leave or relapse and we knew that going into the program that that was the potential, so there’s no limit to how many times people can go through. We like for them to at least wait 30 days until they’re serious about trying. But, we have had a couple phenomenal successes,” Woolford said.

Woolford was a guest on a recent Community Forum, where he talks more about what his department looks to do in the new year with a full staff of 18 officers. That can be found at WJEZ.com.