The first of a set of three qualifying trials took place early Saturday to help fill three open merit deputy positions for the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.

The department has two vacancies following the retirement of former Sheriff Mike Carothers and Detective Tom Barker. A third position will open when Lt. Andy Wayman retires at the end of the month.

Jackson County Sheriff Rick Meyer said the process of hiring an officer takes multiple steps, including physical and written tests along with interviews.

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“The physical portion is the first of the tests the applicants will have to pass to fill the positions. Next will come a written test,” he said before the trials. “The final is interviews with the merit board. That’ll be the big thing.”

The process began with the physical test at Brownstown Central High School’s Blevins Memorial Stadium with a list of 42 applicants. Only 13 remained after cuts from the physical test.

Justin Ames of Seymour and Chris Hubbard of Bedford were two of the 13 who remained after the physical test.

“I’ve wanted to do it for a while, but there never has been a chance,” Ames said of the application process. “I haven’t had stuff where I wanted in my life to try out.”

For Hubbard, becoming a policeman hasn’t been a long-term goal like it has for Ames.

Hubbard said after he worked in law enforcement in the Marine Corps, he took a break from it but has now decided to come back.

“This is the place where I’ve found that the people get what service to a community really means, in the law enforcement field,” Hubbard said.

All of the candidates received the list of objectives for the physical testing when they applied, though Ames and Hubbard said they were not looking forward to the 29 sit-ups in under 1 minute they were required to complete.

The department uses the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy’s exit testing requirements to test applicants.

“We’ve had one or two that made it to the academy, could do the entrance testing but then didn’t make the exit testing and had to retake it,” Meyer said. “To fix that, we just changed the standards to the same standards as the exit testing.”

The physical test began with applicants achieving a 16-inch vertical jump, which did little to deter any of the applicants. More people were forced to drop out during the sit-ups portion of the test.

The next test after that was completing the 300-meter dash in 71 seconds, followed by a minimum of 25 push-ups with no time limit.

By that point, the numbers had been decreased to only 16 applicants. Then three failed the final mile-and-a-half run in less than 16 minutes, 28 seconds.

“These are all filters,” said Brian Thompson, president of the five-member merit board, which oversees officers.

Board member Brett Turner, a former Seymour police officer, also was present. Other board members are David Merry, Roger Teipen and Matt Persinger.

“They get ran through these filters one after another, with the written test and interviews being the next, and that gets us the most qualified,” Thompson said.

Johnathan Zearing one of the applicants who advanced to the written test portion of the application process. The Madison man said he has been in the corrections field for seven years and would like to advance his career as an officer.

“Working in corrections, it’s like getting to see but not partake in the activities you want to be involved with,” he said. “You see it, and it drives you toward it as a goal. Law enforcement is my passion, I guess you could say.”

The written portion of the test was conducted at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the sheriff’s department in Brownstown.

The written test includes general education questions, such as high school-level mathematics and spelling and grammar for commonly used words and phrases found in the law enforcement and legal fields.

The final test the applicants must pass is an interview with several groups, including the merit board.

The merit board ensures candidates have qualities that are expected from a law enforcement official.

“We were set up to oversee the hiring and dismissal of deputies,” Thompson said. “We stabilize and make sure that the hiring and dismissal process are uniform and fair.”

Thompson, who was present during the physical testing, said board members are looking for special qualities in the applicants.

“We want to see dedication, knowledge of what the job is, the ability to work with others and determination,” said Thompson, who added that the determination extended to how they conducted themselves in the physical portion of the test.

“We want to see how they react when they hit that wall (of effort) and what they’re like on the other side of it,” he said.

In the end, Meyer said the merit board will be a big part of the interview processes.

“We want to give them a good list of candidates to interview with and make sure that whoever applies is ready for what’s to come,” he said.

From here, those chosen will go to the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in Plainfield if they haven’t already attended. There, they will receive six weeks (40 hours per week) of training before returning as law enforcement officers.

Besides Meyer, the department presently has 13 merit officers.