By Verna Slate, Williamson County Bureau
CAMBRIA, Ill. — Cambria's first Police Merit Board is officially at work. Its five members were sworn in Thursday, the Southern Illinoisan reports, as the village prepares to build a new process for hiring officers and add to its two-person police department.
It's a small village doing what small villages in this county have always had to do — build the institutions themselves, one appointment at a time. A merit board means hiring decisions for Cambria's police won't rest on one person's say-so; they'll run through a process, on the record.
For a department with only two officers, growth means more coverage on the streets and, the village hopes, a fairer, steadier way to bring new hires on.
filed from the courthouse steps, where the ghosts take good notes.
— Compiled from reporting by the Southern Illinoisan.
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