West Penn Township Police Chief Brian Johnson wants to make sure he hires nothing but the best to protect and serve the township.

In fact, he explained that the hiring process will be much more extensive for his department moving forward.

“In the past we had our issues,” Johnson said at the West Penn board of supervisors meeting on Monday.

“Two weeks ago, I gave you the updated policy for our hiring process, which I believe is way beyond where were before.”

Johnson’s revamped hiring process will go hand-in-hand with Act 57, which according to the Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission’s website, “required the commission to develop a database to hold separation records of all “law enforcement officers” in the Commonwealth.”

Via the MPOETC website, the act requires the database to be operational by July 2021.

Essentially, prospective officers in Pennsylvania must disclose much more personal and background information than before.

Johnson said the first step is still to review a prospective officer’s application. If any red flags come back after the newer, thorough background check, he will not move on with the interviewee.

The process will continue only if things come back completely clean ­- no red flags or minor blips.

After the application review and background check, the prospective officer must take the National Police Officer Selection Test. Johnson said the test features four sections: math, reading, grammar and incident reporting.

The interviewee must pass the test. Only if he or she does, they’ll move on to an oral interview and evaluation with Johnson and the board of supervisors.

“I think we have one of the more aggressive hiring processes in the area,” Johnson added. “No longer do we take word (about someone) over the phone.”

The West Penn Chief said a polygraph test will now be implemented during the interview process if necessary.

Additionally, if it’s feasible, he’s expecting to show up for face-to-face meetings with prospective interviewees at their residence and will even ask neighbors and the community about them.

“We’ve been burned too many times,” Johnson said. “When someone jumps from department to department - is it the department or the officer?

“It’s to weed out the bad. At the end of the day, wouldn’t you want the best officers?”

Chief Johnson is currently the only full-time West Penn officer.

Johnson said during Monday’s meeting that he hopes to add another full-time officer to the roster by June at a starting rate of $24 per hour.

“I think hiring in-house would be appropriate, seeing we do have officers who have been working for us for several years,” Johnson added.

The thorough hiring process will go into effect for any current township part-time officer who applies for a full-time position withing township, in addition to each future interviewee - both part and full time.

The board approved a motion to move forward with the new hiring process for all future prospective township officers on Monday.