Canton city council offers update on police chief search

CANTON, Mo. (WGEM) - It’s down to two candidates for the Canton, Mo., police chief. That was the update from Mayor Sharron Upchurch for the Canton City Council Monday night.

Mayor Upchurch said there were a total of five candidates for the position.

She said under the advice of professional police officials from various departments, they are adopting a new process to screen the applicants which includes an extensive questionnaire.

Upchurch said, moving forward, Chief Troy Link, who works for the Moberly, Mo., police department, will help conduct the preliminary interviews for the two remaining candidates.

Mayor Upchurch said, although it’s a slow process, they are working diligently to get a chief of police hired.

“I’m getting quite a bit of support from people. Yes, they want us to find a police chief as quickly as we can and we’re gonna try to do that,” Upchurch said. “But, we also need to be due diligent, do our due diligence and make sure that we get the right person this time.”

The council tabled the decision of the salary for the new chief. They will schedule a special meeting to finalize the salary before the candidates are interviewed.

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