Village to Welcome New Officers, Celebrate Promotion

trustees and residents Monday night will officially welcome five new officers to the police department. At the same time, Officer Jay Vaccaro will be officially promoted to Sergeant.

The new officers return the MPPD to a full strength of 43 sworn officers. Three officers were already approved for replacement through the 2012 budget and . The village is then responsible for keeping those officers on the payroll for another year.

One of the new officers, Ben Mieloszyk, has been a part-time officer in neighboring for the last two years. Maxwell Zinnen, Casey Smith, Samantha Rowland and Kirk Riffel round out the roster of new hires.

Two officers will go out on the road immediately to begin their 14-week training period because they've already been through the academy and have experience. The remaining three are attending the Police Academy through Gateway Technical College and will graduate in December. They will start their 14-week training period immediately, wrapping up early next year.

Vaccaro's promotion fills a Sergeant's position that has been vacant since Sgt. Joseph Macareno retired last February. According to Chief Tim Zarzecki's executive summary, there are six supervisory Sergeant positions and having a vacancy for six months has put more stress on the rest of the staff.

"The unfilled position has caused a strain on the other Sergeants/command staff who have had to assume his duties," the summary reads. "(The Sergeants position) provides road supervision for patrol officers and detectives, as well as responding to calls for service."