The University Police Department is spreading their staff thinner as they cope with losing police officers, but police and administrators say fewer staff will not mean less safety.

Department employees have been dropping off since last spring, bringing a total of six officers currently leaving holes, said Adam Due, chief public safety officer at the University Police Department.

“We are doing what we can with what we have, and we are trying to get officers replaced as quickly as we can,” Due said.

However, because of budget restrictions, police cannot fill those gaps as quickly as they would like. The department will hire two new police officers this fall, even though five potential employees have passed the required tests.

One employee left last December, one left in November one in August and three last spring. Three retired, one resigned and two transferred.

Jill Nilsen, vice president for external relations, said that the university does not have the budget to hire six new officers. Previously, the police department used a grant to help meet salary demands, but the grant expired this year.

Due said the two officers will be hired as soon as possible.

“The test has been completed, now it’s just a matter of background checks and interviewing, ” Due said.

Due said he reorganized his staff and officers’ shifts, requiring more officers to take on more responsibilities without added hours.

Due has cut down on the number of police patrolling during the day to put more people on Thursday through Saturday evening patrol, when the highest level of criminal activity goes on.

Also, he has eliminated 10-hour, overlapping shifts in the department. Previously, officers would overlap hours, so the extra officers could tend to detail duty.

Detail duties include extra activities on campus like dances or sporting events. Now, officers sign up for detail duty or they are specifically assigned the position.

Due said the restructuring has saved the department time and money. Many times, too many officers would have overlapping shifts and man power would be wasted. Eliminating the 10-hour shift also meant fewer overtime hours needed to be paid out.

Due is also asking officers share their responsibilities instead of assigning specific jobs to specific people, so they can have more time to patrol during peak hours.

Instead of one full-time detective, the department now splits the job between two people, and the training officer has been moved to night patrol instead of days.

Programs in crime prevention, drug education, driving under the influence education and prevention that were handled by one or two officers, are now being undertook by several people at a time.

“We are trying to cross-train people and combine things where we can,” he said.

Despite the rearranging of staff and the shortage of officers, Due said he felt the department was doing a fine job in compensating and still making the campus safe.