AUSTINTOWN — The township’s police force has grown its ranks for the first time in at least three years.

At Monday’s regular meeting, the Austintown trustees approved a motion by police Chief Valorie Delmont to hire three new patrol officers. The township hired Caitlyn Klasic, 23, of Austintown, a graduate of Kent State University’s police academy; Justin R. Whitaker, 36, of Youngstown; and Drew Smith, 27, of Austintown. Smith and Whitaker are graduates of the Youngstown State University police academy.

“This is our first step towards putting some of that levy money to good use and getting good people on the ground, in training, so that we can have a solid workforce and adequate staffing to be able to serve the residents,” Delmont said.

Before Monday, the department’s staffing had dropped to roughly 30 officers, having lost more than a dozen to retirements and departures for other departments over the past several years.

Delmont and retired Chief Robert Gavalier before her had cut duty shifts to five officers, cut overtime, pulled officers off the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement (Drug) Task Force and Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force to ensure proper patrol coverage in the township, and also took detectives from their desks to cover patrol shifts.

In June, the department cut funding for its police dog program, but that cost was covered by donations to ensure the program continued through 2025. While one K9 officer departed, the other remains and Delmont told trustees last month that the department will maintain the program through the remainder of the dog’s career, then revisit the program.

One year after township voters shot down a continuous 2.4-mill continuous levy, they reversed their decision — by the exact same margin, 52% to 48% — and passed in November a new, five-year renewable 2.22-mill levy that will generate about $2 million for the department.

The top priority for that money, expressed by trustees and Delmont alike, was to get more officers back on the road.

Delmont said in January that hiring was not expected to be an easy process, given the dearth of qualified officers applying to a struggling department. On Monday, though, she said the three new recruits have met all of the standards the department insists its officers meet.

“Our standards are very high, we have always taken great pride in the people we hire and the job that we do,” she said. “I know that the people we put into these positions are going to be responsible for sending the officers we have home every night, and therefore we are not willing to lower our standards no matter how hard it is to find good people to work.”

Delmont said Klasic, Whitaker and Smith all passed a lengthy battery of rigorous tests over a period of three to four months, including medical, mental, educational and cognitive testing.

“We’re proud of them and I know they’ll all do an excellent job,” she said.

Delmont thanked the recruits’ families and promised they would be well cared for.

“We promise we will send them home to you, and they will not get out of training until we are certain that is going to happen,” she said. “When they go on solo patrol, they will be ready or we will not send them out there.”