The Marion County Sheriff’s Department has a new deputy.
39-year-old Sam Appleton of Salem was sworn in Friday morning ahead of the start of his training at the SWIC Police Training Academy in Belleville. After he graduates there on December 6th, he’ll complete 10 to 16 weeks of field training with another deputy before starting to work on his own.
Appleton has been working the past year as a part-time correctional officer. Before that he served two tours of duty in Iraq and was stationed in Korea while in the U.S. Army.
Sheriff Kevin Cripps says the department is back to full strength with a new School Resource Officer shared between South Central and Patoka Schools and a deputy now assigned fulltime to work with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Cripps anticipates another deputy being added in the future for a second School Resource Officer position.
