Police Chief Michael Kehoe has updated Police Commission members about police department staffing matters, including plans to hire two new officers, plus plans for promotions involving the naming of one lieutenant and two sergeants.

Chief Kehoe told commission members on September 2 that the department remains two people short of its full roster of 45 sworn officers.

Thus, the Police Commission will soon hire two new officers, both of whom would receive municipal police training before entering local service. One person would be trained at the state’s Municipal Police Academy in Meriden, and the other would receive training at the City of Milford’s police training academy, the police chief said.

Recruits receive nearly six months of training at police academies before receiving several months of field training. After successfully completing field training, the recruits patrol independently.

So far in 2014, the Police Commission has hired four new officers, three of whom are receiving field training and one of whom is receiving police academy training.

Chief Kehoe said he expects that a written examination for the post of lieutenant would be given at the town police department in late October or early November, after which the Police Commission would name a person to that rank. The results of the written test create a promotion eligibility list.

The person named as a lieutenant would be someone who currently is a town police sergeant.

The lieutenant’s vacancy was created by the resignation of former police lieutenant George Sinko in May.

Promotions to the rank of lieutenant are relatively rare in the town police department, considering that only three officers hold that rank.

Because there currently is one sergeant’s vacancy, when a current sergeant is promoted to the rank of lieutenant, there would then be two sergeant’s vacancies.

Early this year, longtime sergeants John Cole and Darlene Froehlich left the police department.

The police department has a sergeant eligibility list based on the results of a past written test for that post.

As an elected agency, the Police Commission hires and promotes police officers, among various other duties. The five-member commission currently has one vacancy.