For the first time since early 2017, the Shawano Police Department is at full staff. A recent hire of officer Sam Ferg-Meshnick completes a journey that has been going on since the retirements of Officer Brian McGee and former Police Chief Mark Kohl. Chief Dan Mauel said the Department has been in the hiring process since then, and the new hire and going full staff has multiple benefits for the department.
“When you are at a minimum staff level to fill the shifts and cover time off, you don’t always have the opportunity to do the things you want to do” said Mauel. “With a full staff you can, but it also saves on the overtime.”
Mauel said they will also be able to start looking at staffing for their Command Positions.
“Now that we are full staff, we can also look at promoting to full command strength” Mauel said. “We have a Chief and two lieutenants that are on the management team, but we would like to have another promotion to make that four people.”
Ferg-Meshnick graduated from NWTC with an Associate’s Degree, and comes from Brown County where he recently spent time as a Correctional Officer. Mauel said Ferg-Meshnick also has military experience.
“He spent five years in the Marine Corps and had a couple of tours over in Afghanistan. He will start his training program this week, which is a 12 week program, and then will be out on his own and able to provide for us.”
This will be the new officers first full-time officer position.