Four highest ranking officers retiring in Chippewa Falls - WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and Sports

Chippewa Falls (WQOW) - Next month, Chippewa Falls will lose four of their highest ranking officers to retirement. 

Captain John Liddell and Lieutenants Mike Farley, Mark Bauman and Mark Hanson will all be retiring this December. Police Chief Wendy Stelter says the department has been planning for at least two retirements for the past six months; the other two took her by surprise.

"Each one of them started to think about the political climate and maybe both locally and at the state level, and being that there right at that time when they could retire anyway, and that retirement was probably in the very near future anyway, they just decided that maybe this would be the best time to do that before 2013 rolled around, "says Chief Stelter.  

The department is hiring people from with-in to fill the empty positions, and is already taking applications for entry level positions.  Chief Stelter hopes to have the positions filled as soon as possible. Until then, officers will work overtime to make up the short staff.