Springfield Police Department added three
officers to the detective bureau this week. Jim Stapleton, Mark
Pointer, and Brian Johnston received new badges and personal
congratulations from Chief Don Kliment during Monday morning roll
call. “It’s not considered a promotion,
it’s a job assignment,” says Deputy Chief Bill Rouse,
who heads SPD’s investigations unit. “But it is a
prestigious move.”
Detectives get gold-colored badges; uniformed
officers wear silver badges. Pointer has been with SPD about six years,
while Stapleton and Johnston have both been on the department more than nine years, Rouse says. All three
officers have worked in field operations; Pointer and Johnston have
also worked in narcotics. Johnston was also Neighborhood Police Officer
at Springfield Housing Authority. These three were top scorers out of 18
officers who took a four-part test. They are now being trained by
three experienced detectives, and should be “cut loose on
their own” in about four to six weeks, Rouse says. These new detectives were named to replace
officers who retired from the bureau over the past two years,
Rouse says.
This article appears in Oct 13-19, 2005.
