A bill approved by the 2023 Legislature will provide the Minot Police Department with a grant to help address an officer shortage.

The department has received a Back the Blue grant of $102,194, which comes from funding approved by the Legislature to support recruitment and retention of sworn officers across the state. The Minot department plans to use the funds to offer bonuses to current officers who actively recruit a successful police officer candidate.

The bonus program is being developed to take effect with the first hiring session of 2024, Police Chief John Klug said.

The department currently is authorized for 84 sworn police officers and has nine vacant positions. On Jan. 1, the authorization increases to 85 officers, raising the anticipated vacancies to 10. However, Klug said, the department is holding a testing event this week for officer candidates and could fill some vacancies in mid-January based on those results.