The Janesville Police Department is currently down about 10 positions.

Deputy Chief Todd Kleisner says they recently hired about a half dozen cadets who start Police Academy next week.

Kleisner says the general public may not realize that the police academy is 17 weeks long, and their field training program is 12 to 14 weeks in length, which means the hiring process takes close to a year.

Kleisner says during their last hiring push, they only got 18 applicants. When he was hired 30 years ago, Kleisner says the police department would see hundreds of applications for open positions.

Kleisner plans to retire this month and Lieutenant Mike Blaser retired at the end of last month.