Vermont State Police looking to hire more troopers

WATERBURY, Vt. (WCAX) - Despite hiring efforts, Vermont State Police say they’re short-staffed, with a 16% officer vacancy rate.

At their annual awards ceremony last Friday, troopers spoke about how sworn officers have been working more shifts and more hours.

They say they want to fix that.

Right now, they have 14 recruits in the academy-- that’s nearly double the class size of the previous three classes.

Troopers are optimistic they are making headway on their staffing shortage.

“We are starting to see more people apply for the job and we are starting to train more people in the academy, so hopefully in due time-- it takes time for troopers to get on the road and be successful-- that when we can get two more classes through we can bring our staffing levels up and reduce the amount of overtime that troopers are working right now,” Vt. State Police Col. Matthew Birmingham said.

The Vermont State Police are fully staffed with about 330 sworn officers. Back in June, they said they were looking to fill 56 positions.

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