The City of Fulton Police Department welcomed six new officers to its police force this month after officers utilized a new Missouri state scholarship.
Jacob Crowder, Pace Mckinney, Cory Cole, Hakeem Whittaker and Trenton Magedanz were sworn into the police force after graduating from the University of Missouri's Law Enforcement Training Institute. Luis Cordoba was sworn in after graduating from the Lincoln University Law Enforcement Training Academy.
"I'm looking forward to them being professional officers that are truly here to serve the community and the citizens," Bill Ladwig, the chief of the Fulton Police Department, said. "There's so much more to policing than stopping cars. We have to be visible in the community and have had good interactions with people in very difficult and trying times when they call us."
Ladwig said he is excited about a "diverse group of new officers," and reflected on what makes them stand out.
He said Crowder and McKinney originally started as dispatchers, Cole always wanted to be an officer growing up, Magedanz serves in the Illinois Air National Guard, Whittaker has been working to be a part of this department since last May and Cordoba is bilingual and has his masters degree.
Each officer received the Missouri Blue Scholarship through the state of Missouri. The scholarship, enacted in October 2022, paid for them to attend their respective police academies for free.
"The scholarships that the state of Missouri have made available, have benefited smaller agencies like Fulton immensely in helping us with limited budgetary resources to attract great candidates that may not have been able to attend on their own," Ladwig said.
In January, the City of Fulton enacted three scholarships that would pay for selected candidates to attend the police academy if individuals don't receive state funding.
The department previously struggled with staffing because they were recruiting officers after they graduated from the academy, while other cities were sending candidates to the academy themselves, said Renee Tyler, director of administration for the City of Fulton.
"People having problems recruiting police throughout the country," Tyler said. "The City of Fulton has turned that around, and now we are fully staffed. We actually now have people from a community relations standpoint that are calling us because they're interested."