Aberdeen Officers' Promotion Part Of Department Restructuring, Chief Says

The promotion of lieutenants Joseph Cole and Alan Geyer to captain is part of a larger vision for the department, Chief John Powers said.

According to Powers, he requested the promotions as well as a seventh sergeant for the department during Aberdeen's budget planning process in February.

"One of the factors we considered when we proposed this was to kind of move people into position and prepare them to take over the leadership in the department," Powers said.

Powers has been with the police department for 31 years and although he does not intend to retire soon, he feels it is in the best interest of the department to begin succession planning.

Cole and Geyer were also strong candidates for a promotion, he said.

"That was really in recognition of the way their duties and responsibilities have expanded in the last seven years or so," Powers said.

The department currently has 33 sworn officers, down from 35 in 2010. They are in need of a seventh sergeant as well, Powers said, to handle the supervision of community and school programs.

"They would take on more community relations, like the school resource office and the D.A.R.E. program," he said. He would also like to see more community programs implemented under the sergeant's supervision.