FLORENCE — One of Florence's three newly chosen police chaplains is a children's pastor with a military police background.

        Another teaches at a Methodist church, and the third runs a Hispanic ministry in Covington.

        The three ministers — Robert Huff, Gary Gibson and Joseph Andino — share one desire: to serve Boone County's largest city in general and its police department in particular. They were named to the Florence department last week, bringing to four the number of police chaplains volunteering to serve the city department's 53 law officers and numerous victims of crimes.

        “I've always had an interest in law enforcement. I know what they deal with,” said the Rev. Mr. Huff, 30, children's pastor and facility coordinator at Fellowship of Believers on Hazel Drive.

        The Rev. Mr. Gibson, 40, senior pastor at Florence United Methodist Church on Old Toll Road, said notifying a family of a death is one of the hardest parts of the job, whether the family is from his church or not.

        “If you know the family, you know their dispositions,” he said.

        Many Northern Kentucky police departments have chaplains, who help officers deal with job-related stress and serve families after accidents, deaths and crimes.

        Police chaplains must be ordained ministers, and they must attend classes in Cincinnati, Lexington or Louisville. In Florence, the four chaplains will serve one week a month.

        The three ministers joined the Rev. Robert Golden of Greenview Baptist Church, the fourth chaplain, in the Florence department.
       Terry Flynn of the Enquirer contributed.

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