Brunswick hires two new police officers

BRUNSWICK — Two new officers were sworn in Wednesday morning to join the Brunswick Police Department. Kyle Flagg and Zach Krebs are joining through the city's recently instituted lateral transfer program, allowing the department to hire officers that already have active experience at another department and can cut down on the need for training compared to new hires. "They'll still go through field training but that field training will be shortened," Safran said. "Traditionally, a new officer out of the academy would have about a four- to five-month field training process. The hope is that with an officer with their level of experience that their field training would be shortened." Prior to this move, Flagg had spent time with both the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority Police and the Euclid Police after graduating from Polaris Police Academy. Krebs has prior experience with the University Circle Police Department in Cleveland and is a graduate of Cuyahoga Community College's Police Academy. The additions keep the department at 40 full-time officers, with Flagg and Krebs replacing two officers that recently left the department. Safran said adding young but experienced officers to the staff is a big advantage for the department. "Police work is a young man's game," Safran said. "It's good to have new energy. It's nice because both of these officers, they bring different backgrounds to us too and it's good for any organization to have some diversity to it." Contact reporter Jack Kopanski at (330) 721-4063 or jkopanski@medina-gazette.com.