An extra patrol officer sworn in Tuesday will help the village of Mingo Junction stay on top of law enforcement.

The Mingo Junction Police Department can now patrol areas full-time for 24-hours. A $125,000 community policing grant from the U.S. Department of Justice called the COPS program allows Mingo Junction to add one more officer to its force, said Police Chief Steve Maguschak.

It saves the village money since officers worked double shifts as vacation time kicked in this summer, Maguschak said.

"He'll be able to assist us, and we'll be able to free up some manpower once we do get through vacations to conduct better investigations, start conducting some traffic enforcement and enforcing the ordinances a little better," said Maguschak.

Since the department operates on community policing, officer rely heavily on federal grants to support the village's law enforcement. In years past, officers suffered major cut backs due to budget cuts, forcing them to rely on others, such as the Jefferson County Sheriff's  Office, to cover their area. Now, Maguschak said, they won't need to depend on the Sheriff’s Office to patrol the area.