New resource officers ready to go as soon as more police are hired

Police sergeant Rank
is thinking early March

The need to hire more police is keeping two new neighborhood resource officers (NROs) off the street for now in La Crosse. 

Police had hoped to add to the number of community police on the street early this year. Now, the date looks like early March, according to La Crosse police sergeant Randy Rank.

“That is all going to be determined based on staffing levels for our patrol divisions, so it’s kind of a wait-and-see,” Rank said.

The new resource officers have already been selected but are still on the job elsewhere until there are more warm bodies hired to take their places, Rank explained.

“We have some new officers coming on,” Rank said. “They’ll go through the field-training programs. Hopefully, as soon as those officers are ready to go, we can get the NROs out in the downtown area.”

The two NROs will be the first to be paid out of the city’s operating budget. Four others on the job are still being funded through grants and donations.