Police interviewing for new sergeant

Sometime in the next couple weeks Grand Coulee will have a new police sergeant.

Oral examinations for the sergeant position are scheduled for this Saturday at city hall for three prospective candidates for the job, all current Grand Coulee police officers.

Taking part in the administration of oral tests Saturday are officers from the Okanogan and Grant county sheriffs’ departments and an officer from the Okanogan Police Department.

The names of the three Grand Coulee officers taking the oral exams will not be released, according to the Civil Service Commission, until tests are complete.

The applicants will be graded according to their oral exam test scores, and this information will go to police Chief John Tufts for his selection.

Tufts said at Monday night’s Civil Service Commission meeting, which never happened for lack of a quorum, that he plans to interview the candidates before making a selection.

The person becoming the new department sergeant replaces Tufts, who was moved up to chief by Mayor Chris Christopherson after the retirement of Mel Hunt last October. 

Then the Civil Service Commission will swing into action again, this time to find the department’s final officer. Grand Coulee will then have its eight-member force intact.

Four of its officers are funded through the city’s contract with the Bureau of Reclamation.

The CSC plans to hire an outside firm to advertise, provide testing and conduct interviews for the patrol officer.

Tufts said Monday that it is hopeful that the advertising of the position will turn up someone who could make a lateral move to patrolman — someone who has already been through the police academy.