Jim Thorpe Borough will soon begin civil service testing for potential full-time police officers.

Mayor Michael Sofranko said during Thursday night's borough meeting that while a resolution approved by council starts the process, the police department is not looking to hire an officer at this time."Our list of candidates has expired," Sofranko said. "Officers occasionally want to move on to bigger and better things, and we don't want to be left without a pool of qualified candidates if that should happen."The civil service test doesn't cost the borough anything to administer. Applicants pay a $40 fee.Jim Thorpe also recently lost three part-time officers, two who went on to full-time employment elsewhere."We'd like to add at least two more part-time officers to our roster," Sofranko said. "We're down to three at this point."In other police matters, Sofranko said that shifting schedules this summer allowed the department to close some key drug cases."We moved some full-time officers out during the day to help Chief Joe Schatz," he said. "Because of that, Matthew Schwarz, who is handling our drug work, closed one case involving 270 bags of heroin and another with 2.5 grams of cocaine. Chief Schatz was also able to update 165 pages of the police department's standard operating procedure."Schatz told council Thursday that 45 hours of aggressive driving patrols in the past month led to 81 speeding citations."We've done a lot of work when it comes to slowing aggressive drivers, and you can see the impact," Schatz said. "When we sit on North Street, you can see the brake lights start to light up as they come down the hill."In other news, council on Thursday approved the 2015 minimal municipal obligation for the police pension plan at $115,417, and the borough pension plan at $81,580.