A lack of workers seems to be facing every facet of the economy these days and that has now spread to the Mt. Carmel Police Department. At Monday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Joe Judge said a recent Illinois Municipal League meeting he attended brought the issue to the forefront..

To help widen the pool of potential police officer candidates, the city council has decided to allow officers to live not only in Wabash County, but also Edwards, White, Lawrence, and Richland Counties. Judge explained that currently, in order to meet the residency requirement, some MCPD officers rent an apartment locally while having their primary residence in another county. The only caveat to living out of county will be officers will not be allowed to take their squad cars home as is presently done if they live in Wabash County.