The Yuma Police Department is nearly back to a full staff.
The YPD has been short-staffed for more than one year. However, three officers have joined the department in recent weeks, and one more currently is at the police academy and will join the YPD in the near future to make it full again.
“Lots of work,” Chief Jerry Thompson said when asked what it has meant for the department to be short-handed.
He expressed relief there are enough to spread around the duties again.
The chief said a reason one of the new hires is an investigator, Don Nadow, is so he can take over that workload. That allows other officers to spend more time out in the public, instead of being in the office loaded with paperwork and investigative duties.
Nadow has joined the YPD after 27 years with the Colorado State Patrol.
He said he spent more than six years investigating vehicular crimes, so he had been out in this area plenty of times. He was working HOV lane enforcement on I-25 and Highway 36 in Adams County when he retired.
Nadow said he still wanted to work in law enforcement. The opening in the YPD presented an opportunity to be closer to his granddaughter, who lives in Holyoke. His son is a deputy with the Phillips County Sheriff’s Office. In fact, his son is the fourth generation in the family to be in law enforcement.
Plus, his daughter is an ER nurse at Children’s Hospital.
“It’s something I’m interested in,” Nadow said of being the investigator. “It’s a way I can help out this community.”
The other two new hires — Chris Holmes and Trevor Buchanan — are fresh out of the Otero Law Enforcement Academy, where they graduated and passed the Colorado POST test to become certified police officers.. Both signed an agreement with the City of Yuma, in which their academy costs are covered in return to working here for a set amount of time.
Holmes said he grew up in the Peyton-Falcon area east of Colorado Springs, graduating from high school in 2012.
He said worked at the Sterling Correctional Facility for awhile, left there to do roofing, then went back to prison work.
Holmes said his grandfather was in law enforcement in El Paso County. He heard his grandpa’s stories growing up, and decided he wanted to get into also. He heard about the Yuma openings, signed on, and recently finished his training at the academy.
Buchanan graduated from Wray High School, moving to Yuma County 15 years ago. He spent four years in the United States Navy, and then worked in the oil and gas industry.
However, he said he wanted to get into law enforcement, heard aboug the openings at YPD and successfully applied.
Buchanan and Holmes had to do three weeks of their academy schooling online, just like any students in recent months, but were able to finish back on campus and get their certification.
All new officers are undergoing a training period where they ride with current officers that have FTO (Field Training Officers) certifications, to learn how to uphold the laws within the Colorado Revised Statutes and the laws written within City of Yuma Municipal Codes.
Other members of the YPD are Curtis Witte, Cameron Josh, Patrick Laybourn and James Thomson.
