Montville -- With two newly hired officers making their way through the police academy and a recent graduate in training, the Montville Police Department is slowly filling in its slate of budgeted positions.

And, Lt. Leonard Bunnell said Monday, he plans to ask for more officers this year.

The town budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year included funding for three new officers, bringing the total number of positions to 26.

The department now employs 22 officers, including the two officers in the academy, one in training and one on leave with an injury, Bunnell said.

The department is overseen by state police as part of the Resident State Trooper program, but Bunnell and Mayor Ronald McDaniel are responsible for hiring new officers.

Stacie Savage of Franklin and Kathleen Schmelzer of Deep River were sworn in last month and began a 22-week police training program on Dec. 31. A third officer, Dan Witts, of Plainville, graduated from the academy and recently started at the department on a probationary basis.

Hiring officers to fill those four still-empty spots will get done, Bunnell said, but it’s more difficult than he expected.

“We’re obviously struggling, just as any police department is,” he said. “But we did not anticipate on this much difficulty.”

Plenty of candidates have applied for the positions, he said, but many do not pass background checks.

Bunnell said last year that the department did not have enough staff to meet the town’s law enforcement needs.

The pressure on the existing officers has not yet let up, but he said seeing new recruits enter and graduate from the academy has made the department more optimistic.

“The individual officers are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

The Town Council granted Bunnell's request for three new officers even after McDaniel's proposed budget only included enough money for one.

McDaniel said he foresaw difficulty finding qualified officers.

Some, including former Mayor Russ Beetham, questioned the need for new officers at the time, saying the effect on the budget of hiring three new people would outweigh the benefit of increasing the department.

Now, McDaniel said, the town is “pushing through” interviews and hiring to bring the department to its full capacity.

“We’re getting quality candidates, and we’re moving them through the process,” he said.

And despite four slots that have yet to be filled, Bunnell said he plans to ask for two more officers during 2016-17 budgeting process this spring.

The request is unrelated to the possibility that Montville will become an independent department and leave the state trooper program, he said.

A town committee charged with evaluating the possible transition to an independent department recommended that the number of officers be increased to at least 30 officers if the switch happens.

But bringing the number of budgeted officers to 28 is something the department needs even if it remained in the resident state trooper program, Bunnell said.

“When you have two people that are actually receiving the brunt of the workload (per shift) … to be able to share that with maybe four, it’s going to make it easier to pay attention to the investigations that need to be done,” he said.

 m.shanahan@theday.com

Twitter: @martha_shan