There has been another full-time addition to Vandergrift's Police Department. Bob Kirkland, who has been working for the force part-time for the last four years, has recently become a full-time officer. Bob is a resident of Lower Burrell. After graduating from Burrell High School, he attended Indiana University Police Academy. The program is about a year long….around 630 hours.

He said that he is now just trying to adjust to his new schedule. He had been working three part-time jobs in the Upper Burrell, Washington Twp, and Vandergrift Police Departments. Now that he is down to one full-time job he said that he has a lot of extra time on his hands. This comes at a great time in his life because he was recently married.

I asked him why he decided to get into law enforcement. He told me that his father was involved in the Fire department for a long time and was friends with a lot of the police officers. So, he was around them a lot. Bob said that he wants to make a difference. He wants to try to educate children to the dangers of drugs and alcohol.