Addition of Spoljaric puts department up to full staff

On Monday afternoon, the Ironton Police Department added to its roster with the swearing in of Bradley Spoljaric.

He has previous experience after being an officer with Ironton Municipal Court for two years and working under Judge Clark Collins, and most recently serving with the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office for about nine months as a deputy.

He graduated from Ironton in 2011. He went to the Ohio Police Training Academy in 2014-2015.

He decided to get into law enforcement because his older brother, Johnathan, was a deputy.

“He had a pretty good job with it, so I figured that was always an option,” Spoljaric said.

He wanted to join the IPD because he wanted to serve his community.

“I thought it would be a good fit, with me being from Ironton,” Spoljaric said. “And the sheriff’s office won’t have the confusion of having two Spoljarics, since everyone is known by their last names. But I want to keep Ironton safe and the IPD already does a pretty good job. Hopefully, I will just get in their flow. I will follow their lead for the next couple weeks.”

IPD Chief Pam Wagner said they were excited to have Spoljaric onboard.

One officer recently left for another job and that left an opening for Spoljaric to join. His addition puts the department back to 15 officers.

“He has experience and we expect he will do a great job,” she said.