PPD is fully staffed

By Terry Murry on Wednesday, August 2nd, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

PENDLETON – Police Chief Chuck Byram is excited to finally be able to say that the department is not looking for new officers.

“We are now finally fully staffed,” he said. “We have all of them in the building. They are all hired. They are all going through training right now, some in different phases than others, obviously.”

Byram said the backlog at the state’s police academy contributes to the length of time new officers spend in training. Five of the new officers were hired in June and July. Four were new positions and four were to replace departing officers.

Dakotta Bridges just graduated from the academy and is in his final phase of training. Officer Megan Leloff graduates from the academy in about two weeks, Kaden Ongers is in his 10^th week in the academy and is due to graduate the Friday of Round-Up Week. Austin Greenfield is leaving an Oregon Department of Transportation job in Sherman County to join the police department. Matthew Lopez and Evan Kugler are local residents. Natalie Orchard joins the department from Walla Walla and Peter Josue is moving out from his work for the Department of Corrections at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution to become a patrol officer.

“I can feel the sense of relief inside the walls of the police department,” Byram said. “Just seeing all of them in there and all of them interacting is really nice to see.”