Helmers, Jany named new sergeants
<span>For the first time in recent memory, the Chester Police Department has new sergeants.</span>
<span>The Chester Police and Fire Commission met last Friday at Chester City Hall and named Bobby Helmers and Joe Jany to the position after an extensive, and months-long, testing process.</span>
<span>Their appointments are effective immediately and the pair will be formally recognized during the Chester City Council meeting on Oct. 5.</span>
<span>"What I think they will bring to the department is the work ethic that they have," said Chester Police Chief Ryan Coffey. "Both Officer Jany and Officer Helmers are hard workers, self-starters and will be great examples for the other officers to emulate."</span>
<span>The pair were two of seven full-time candidates for the position, which will add between 60 and 70 hours of supervision per week. In previous meetings of the Chester City Council, Coffey discussed a need for "consistent supervision" within the CPD.</span>
<span>"Everything revolves around the need for consistent supervision," Coffey previously said. "Supervision when I'm not there. I'm there approximately 22 percent of the time.</span>
<span>"We operate 24 hours per day, we never close and me working 40 or more hours still only reaches 22 percent of the time."</span>
<span>Discussions regarding a chain of command at the CPD began in March and Coffey provided progress updates to both the council and the city's Police, Fire and Public Safety Committee in the months that followed.</span>
<span>"We certainly learned a lot through the process," he told the Herald Tribune last week. "This was the first time I was involved in any kind of promotional testing process and I know also that the police commissioners had never experienced that either.</span>
<span>"It was a first time for us and we learned a lot."</span>
<span>Coffey also complimented the commissioners, Jim Holder, Ron Rathert and Gary Knop, on their work.</span>
<span>"The police commissioners did a very good job," he said. "It was very well-organized and (the testing) went very well.</span>
<span>"There's a few different things I would like to tweak. I would like to come up with a program that provides merit points for certain qualifications in-house in addition to your military merit points or years of service."</span>
<span>Among the examples Coffey used for merit points was field training officer (FTO) certification.</span>
<span>Coffey said he plans to sit down with both Helmers and Jany during the next several weeks to discuss priorities and leadership philosophies.</span>
<span>"We have several projects I want them to work on for the department," he said. "I'll assign those out to each of the sergeants and have them work on those projects.</span>
<span>"There's a series of training courses that they will be attending over the fall months that we secured two spots for earlier this summer."</span>
<span>Coffey said his role as police chief won't change much, other than he'll be able to delegate more of the time-consuming supervisory tasks he undertakes.</span>
<span>"I've had to wear a few different hats," he said. "Unless you're in this chief's position, you don't realize it unless you get to experience it yourself.</span>
<span>"I've found myself being front-line supervisor - essentially being sergeant because I didn't have those sergeants to handle that stuff - and it is an incredible challenge to manage your staff when you don't even work with two-thirds of your staff because they're on different shifts."</span>
<span>Coffey said the sergeants will allow him to spread those supervisory role responsibilities throughout the week.</span>
<span>"Our officers are going to experience a lot more consistency with that supervision," he said.</span>
<span>The Oct. 5 city council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. and open to the public.</span>