State and federal grants might soon make it possible for the Lawrence Police Department to add nine or more officers to the 123-person force.

But the department might have a hard time filling the ranks.

Lawrence Police officers James Miller, left, and Gil Crouse work on their law enforcement techniques at the ITC building, 4820 W. 15th St. Lawrence Police Chief Ron Olin told city commissioners Wednesday that the department was having trouble recruiting enough qualified officers.

“It’s really a tough recruiting time,” Chief Ron Olin told the Lawrence City Commission on Wednesday.

Olin said the city had been notified it would receive a three-year, $500,000 federal grant to put “school resource officers” in the city’s four junior high schools. The officers handle security at the school, but they also help teach some classes and work with students.

“The schools are very excited about this,” said Mayor Sue Hack, who teaches at Southwest Junior High School. “To have another caring adult in each building is very helpful.”

City Manager Mike Wildgen said the Kansas Department of Transportation had indicated it would give the city a three-year grant to put five officers on the streets to handle only traffic enforcement. He hopes to convince KDOT to add more officers.

Olin said that those new positions, combined with turnover in the department, could lead to the need to fill 19 positions. The problem, he said, is that he now has only 17 or 18 qualified applicants for the next recruiting class.

“And we usually try to overhire, because the washout rate is 15 percent,” he said.

Olin said background checks on some promising applicants had turned up drug or other legal problems in the pasts of police hopefuls.

“Trying to get the candidates we want has been a problem,” he said.

Lawrence isn’t alone. One-third of police recruits in Chicago, Olin said, wash out before the end of training.

“It’s a national problem,” he said.

City officials meet with KDOT today to discuss the traffic officer grant.