It was not that long ago DeWitt County Sheriff Mike Walker was touting having his department fully staffed and now in the middle of the summer, the Sheriff needs more people.

On the WHOW Morning Show Wednesday, Sheriff Walker told Regional Radio he's all of a sudden down two patrol officers as one has recently departed for the City of Clinton and the other has gone to the State Police.

According to the Sheriff, the State Police pay more and have better benefits. He will never fault an officer for making a decision that is going to be better for him and his family.

Sheriff Walker explains State Police has always offered a better pay opportunity and city departments seem to pay more than Sheriff's departments. He says from a union perspective, they do their best to be competitive in pay.

Making the challenge worse is the fact applicants for law enforcement are drastically down. He indicates for the two openings he had one interview not even show up.

While adding officers to the State Police force, Illinois is recruiting from its local departments which are the responding officers for local incidents. Sheriff Walker called it 'robbing Peter to pay Paul'.

Sheriff Walker continues to credit his staff for their dedication to the community. He says these challenges are not new for him or his staff.