The city of Struthers is looking to change age requirements for police recruits to help bring more people into the department.

The initial age qualification for a person wanting to join the police force is currently 35.

Police Chief Tim Roddy tells 21 News that, a lot of times, that age is too young and causes them to miss out on a number of good, potential hires.

The department is going to be having a test soon and city officials say they want to have a large group of applicants to choose from.

"When we get into situations where we have people on medical leave or if they're on administrative leave for any different reason, we don't have to worry because we'll be able to fill that gap," said Struthers Mayor Catherine Cercone Miller. "So we wanna have a full roster," she said.

The age limit was a state regulation but Miller tells 21 News they want to increase it to 45 or consider dropping it altogether.

"We actually even may question whether or not we can put an age limit on it at all because it may be age discrimination," said Miller. "So we're looking into that, too so we're gonna talk about it at council tonight through our committee meeting and see what we come up with," she said.

The union says they've had applicants in their twenties fail and would rather get ten good years out of someone closer to retirement than 25 with someone unqualified.

"You have other officers that you know, spend time at the other agencies and got experience and they're, they're not young guys," said Struthers Police Captain and Union President DJ Aldish. "But to cut them off simply because their age, just it doesn't seem, it doesn't seem right, if they can pass the physical standards and they can show them-self to be a proficient police officer, I don't think age should matter," he said.

Mayor Miller says council voted Wednesday to bring the change up at their meeting on September 22. She expects it to pass without opposition during that meeting.