A 19-year veteran with the Jefferson Police Department recently took over an administrative role.

Jason Kroeger was promoted to the rank of captain. Kroeger previously served as sergeant since February when he and Sergeant Jeremy Beherns were promoted at the same time. Kroeger also served as sergeant from 2017-2019. Mayor Matt Gordon believes Kroeger’s promotion is a good move for the department, which the department has been without a captain since Heath Enns left the department and then joined the Greene County Sheriff’s Office last year.

“Jason’s a great officer. He’s been with us for 19 years. This is, I think, is a long time coming, and it’s going to be great to have him in that leadership role as captain. It’s going to take a lot of the headache away from (Police Chief) Mark (Clouse), he’s going to be able to focus on being chief instead of trying to fill the captain role and the chief role.”

Gordon points out Kroeger will work an overlap shift, along with Sergeant Behrens, so that there continues to be a supervisor on both ends of the shifts. He talks about Clouse and Kroeger being mentors to the younger officers.

“They’re a wealth of knowledge and experience, and they’re going to do a great job of bringing up these new officers that we currently have.”

Kroeger also received a pay raise to $65,000.