As a follow-up on police coverage:
I’ve not had a chance to speak to Chief Reid as he was on vacation and also attending a school resource officer in Florida this past week. He and a representative from the S.E. School District were required to attend as part of our Federal Grant monies that we receive each year for the school resource officers.
I did however talk to our secretary who advised me that the officer who was supposed to be on duty was unable to get out of his driveway due to the snow. He did contact the Chief who typically works during the day, stayed around and patrolled until 7:00PM that evening. This would explain why the York County 911 Dispatch forwarded you to the State Police.
While I personally feel this was poor planning on the officer’s part, I also have a 4 wheel drive vehicle, live in-town and the officer does not. This particular situation is where the new Ford Explorer, 4-wheel drive Police vehicle would have been very beneficial, as the officer on duty could have gone and picked up the next officer on duty to ensure that we had adequate coverage. The last I had heard, Stewartstown Police Department is expecting to take delivery of the new vehicle before years end.
Concerning Chief Reid and his allergy to darkness; I agree that it is rare to see Chief Reid, out and about patrolling in the evening or on the weekends. I can say that I have seen him doing so especially during the summer, but I suspect this is because I too am outside more and see him patrolling the neighborhood. Chief Reid typically provides coverage when an officer calls in sick, or other issues arise that would prevent and officer from reporting for duty. As he is responsible for coverage, he gets to fill-in when coverage is necessary. While I would also like to see Charlie out and about more often, I am also appreciative of the time spent in the office shuffling papers and taking care of the administrative stuff that the State requires.
Some of time spent in the office has allowed us to increase of police force by two officers, by obtaining Federal grants for school resource officers. These grants help defray the costs of providing police coverage locally, and allow us to provide police services to other municipalities at a rate the exceeds our costs, further helping to keep our tax rate from increasing.
It has been the council’s long term goal to increase the force to the level that would provide “24x7” coverage. I agree that this most likely will not occur until we can provide coverage to Hopewell Township, however over the past two years we have began providing service to the S.E. School District and most recently to Winterstown Borough. Most likely the borough would welcome other municipalities that would be interested in receiving contracted police services. In each case we have to look at the number of hours of service being requested and our available resources. I would be supportive of adding additional officer at the expense of tax payers; however I would want to know that the tax payers wanted this service improvement and were willing to pay for the additional service.
The other item of interest is about our recent loss of another police officer.
While I personally feel there are management issue’s that have resulted in some of officers leaving the force, there are also other genuine reasons which contribute to our officers leaving the Stewartstown Police force for other police districts or positions outside of police work.
It is important to note that our officer’s salary tends to be on the lower side of the pay scale compared to other police forces. There is also no opportunity in a small police force for advancement. When your only management position is the Chief of Police, there is little opportunity for advancement. At this point it will be a number of years before Chief Reid retires.
In the case of Gary Utter, he became a father and taking a position with the Springettsberry Township, provided a pay raise (kids cost lots of money), a contracted pay raise each year, plus opportunity for advancement and career enhancement via skill enhancement.
In the case of Office Jen, she had been our first school resource officer and she did such a wonderful job there that the school district offered her a job working as a guidance councilor. A job where you have the holidays and summers off, similar pay or more I assume, a reduced risk of getting shot and shorter hours.
In the most recent loss to the Stewartstown Police department, Shawn Packard will be relocating his family so that he and his wife can start new jobs and be closer to his wife’s family. All in all the new jobs will provide new opportunities for both, while having the family support which was limited in Red Lion. Officer Packard in my opinion was a very good officer as were the others. Only time will tell if our new officers can fill their shoes.
The only other item to address is the council’s knowledge about our “leader” and the chain of command. I don’t feel it is appropriate for me to discuss this in the public forum. I would like to recommend some options for any resident that has issues with the police department.
All police matters “following the chain of command” should be taken up with the Mayor. If you feel that the matter was not addressed to your satisfaction or not addressed at all, then the issue should be taken to the Police & Public Safety committee (Members: Guy Hook, Marsha England, and myself)
One of the problems that the police and public safety committee has discussed when there have been concerns about the police department is that the number of complaints have been minimal or that it is always the same, single resident complaining. If we had more complaints or at least more people attending each meeting with various issues, then it would indicate an obvious problem. As it has been for the past couple years, we rarely have people attend the council meetings and even less, attend the committee meetings.
A list of meeting dates/times are listed in the quarterly newsletter and on the borough’s website http://www.stewartstown.org listed under Calendar.
A copy of the most recent and past newsletter is available under Current Events.
If any resident would like to talk to me about issues related to our local government or the police force they are welcome to do so. My e-mail address is
Thanks,
Jeff Bruening
Councilman, Stewartstown Borough
