Coatesville police will have a Spanish-speaking officer on each shift with the hiring of four new provisional police officers, bringing the department just one person shy of its full compliment of 34 police officers.

Monday the four officers -- Paul Antonucci, Robert Kuech, Christopher McCarthy and Miquel Ortiz-- were sworn in before council. They all have prior police experience and are all Act 120 certified, a state requirement. Two, Ortiz and McCarthy speak Spanish. According to the latest census data, Coatesville has the highest population of Spanish-speaking people in the county.

When William Matthews took over as police chief in May 2007 he was called upon by city council to make the police department more diversified by hiring more African-American and Spanish-speaking officers. "With the appointment of these four officers, the Coatesville police department is completely diversified," Matthews said at Monday night's council meeting.

The the addition of the four officers bring to 11 hired under a provisional employment process that allows the city to quickly fill vacancies outside of the normal civil service testing procedure. Matthews said the next officer hired will be from a new civil service list. The hiring of that officer will bring the department to full strength at 34 officers.

The department was down in the number of total officers because of recent retirements and resignations; several officers left to work at other police departments. Only last year, City Manager Harry Walker and Matthews announced possible layoffs because of budget constraints. Those layoffs never occurred; however, seven employees from other departments were laid off.

Ortiz is a graduate of Cheyney University where he was awarded a scholarship to play football. He worked as a police officer at Temple University. McCarthy and Kuech both worked for local police departments, South Coatesville and West Caln, respectively. Antonucci was a police officer in Clifton Heights.