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Youngstown committee approves hiring and cruisers

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – Youngstown City Council's Safety Committee Thursday approved the hiring of new police officers and the purchasing of new police cruisers. The measure now goes to the full council for approval. For the second time in a month, Youngstown Police Chief Carl Davis and Sergeant Seann Cafolo appeared before city council's safety committee, trying to convince them to accept a federal grant to hire new officers. 'This grant is to assist with paying for new hired officers and cadets,' Cafolo said. The committee approved accepting a $1.6 million federal grant, which, combined with a $537,000 local match, will pay the salaries for 15 new officers for three years — with the city responsible for paying the entire salary in the fourth year. 'We're facing some challenges now with attracting people to come onto the Youngstown Police Department,' Davis said. Davis also said he expects 18% of his 130-person police department to retire over the next several years. 'That would be for the purchase of 11 vehicles,' he said. The committee also approved spending $695,000 of city money to buy 11 new police vehicles — five to frontline marked cars, three marked for K-9 use and three new vehicles for the crime lab. 'A good portion of our police fleet exit the city of Youngstown between three and four o'clock,' Councilwoman Anita Davis said. Davis said she wants GPS tracking systems installed in every vehicle taken home by an officer — or when it's time for the full council to vote — she'll vote no 'If they're only supposed to be used for transportation to and from work when they're not outside the city, we can pinpoint that they are at that person's address and not somewhere else, utilized somewhere else,' Davis said. The full Youngstown City Council is expected to vote on both the hiring grant and the vehicle purchase at its June 4th meeting. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.