Southern York County Life

Unfortunatly I have had to call 911 several times to report disturbances after 11 P.M. Each time I was told that they would have to send out a trooper from the Southern precinct because Stewartstown police were not on duty that time at night. Most of the time it took them 30-45 minutes to arrive and by then the people were either gone or had quieted down. If one of our officers had been on duty I am sure that they would have responded a lot sooner. Also I thought that there was a curfew for teenagers. Because of the hours that I work there are a lot of times that I will come home between 12 and 2 A.M. on a Friday or Saturday night and there will be small groups of teenagers hanging from the area by the post office down to Pennsylvania Ave. Maybe if our police were out around that hour they might just stop a lot of the vandalism that has been going on in the area. I don’t mean to come down hard on our officers, they are doing the best that they can but with 4 officers maybe they can keep one of them out until late on the weekends especially.

I just came across littlepetey’s post and had to give a response.  You know who I am by by handle.  I would like to respond to the concerns of a resident.  Yes, we do have 4 officers, however this is how they are scheduled at this time.  one officer on daylight, one officer in the school district(also daylight) the other officer is on nights training the other new officer.  this does create some times where there is no night coverage.  this will soon change since the rookie is nearing completion of field training. as for the kids...they know the cop cars from a distance.. they can disappear into yards before we can get to them. The same is true for the friday and saturday night problems however, we have in the past caught kids out and taken them home and in some instances issued citations for violating curfew. So.....Hang in there, we will have another officer starting in late May, increasing manpower to 5 full time offficers to cover Stewartstown, Winterstown, Crossroads and the school district properties.  I would also like to add that the vandalism is considerably lower in our patrol areas as opposed to the areas that surround us.   

Just an update on the curfew concern that littlepetey had.... saturday a.m. one was snagged and was arrested.....not for curfew.....instead it was for intoxication and possession of drugs.  So as you can see, we are out there, we just can’t catchem all.  thanks for the concern and bringing it to our attention.  

i don’t know who the officer is that works daylight but they were not in sight Friday afternoon as a kid rode his skateboard on the sidewalk across from the post office nearly knocking me down. On Sunday afternoons kids skateboard in the Allfirst parking lot and there is no officer in sight. With 2 officers working nights why was there no one to catch the thief that stole the American flag off the post office flag pole and the VFW’s flag pole? There have also been several flags missing from their flag holders throughout the borough. A “true” American does not steal flags. They buy their own. Walmart has plenty of them and they do not cost that much.

I read in the local newspaper that borough police patrol Hopewell Township.  2 Fridays ago around 1 in the afternoon I took a short cut and drove up Scarborough. I noticed 14 or 15 teens loafing under a deck sitting and standing around smoking. There was school that day. Where was the daylight police officer?

Walkman

O.K. what is the deal with the kids and their street surfboards? Provide a place for them to skate and call their own and this would be a dead issue. Besides, If the parents of these kids that ran all over town would find things for them to do even more complaints would dry up.  As with the flag thefts, the only flags that have been reported stolen are from the Post Office! The folks at the VFW are too worried about other matters, I guess. We can’t do anything if it is not reported.  As for Hopewell Twp. WE DO NOT COVER THE TOWNSHIP, they are happy with state police or so it is told.  If you think a change to local coverage would benefit the community, which it would, complain to the township supervisors.  Also remember folks we are not a 24/7 Department yet.

With only 1 or 2 officers on duty at any one time, how do you expect them to be everywhere. They can only do so much.

The other night I had to call the police and I was pleasantly surprised when after midnight our police showed up. Don’t get me wrong we have some good officers in our town and yes it would be great if someone could be on duty 24/7 but they do the best that they can. One question though, What is going on with the teens in town? I can’t remember the teens being much of a concern until the last few months. Is the community center still open on Friday nights?

The deal with the kids and their street surfboards is they monopolize the sidewalks. Why should I provide a place for them to skate and call their own? Because I complained??? We had nice tennis courts and you saw what happened to them after they were refinished. No respect for public property. Why don’t the parents of kids with street skateboards buy an acre or two of land and build their kids their own skate board area. Why should the rec. board be held liable for any accidents caused by skateboards to the skateboard user or others? Let the parents buy land and provide the insurance and let them be held liable for any injuries or deaths caused by their children’s skateboarding.

I do agree that if the parents of these kids that ran all over town would find things for them to do even more complaints would dry up.

I agree you can’t do anything if the VFW or no one else reports flag thefts. I thought the VFW and other residents had complained. I guess I was wrong.

I thought I read borough police did provide coverage. Perhaps someone told me this. Thanks you for clarifying this.

I guess I thought with 4 police officers and plans for hiring another officer the borough would have 24/7 coverage or at least provide coverage at the times when vandalism and crimes are more apt to occur such as weekends.

Walkman

I forgot to ask-- what happened to the police blotter. It hasn’t been updated since Feb. 17?

Walkman

I forgot to ask-- what happened to the police blotter. It hasn’t been updated since Feb. 17?

Walkman

I update the police blotter as time permits.  Unfortunately I receive it as a fax rather than submitted through the article submission process and must retype it.  That takes time, and since I generally only get a few minutes at a time to do anything on the site (like a few minutes right now before sleepy time), well it just doesn’t happen as often as I’d like.  Especially lately as I’ve been focusing on site redesign.  I will get to it! 

Lilpetey, here is the answer to the question you had about the teens and the friday night teen center......Yes it has been shut down until further notice. Why you ask? I don’t know.  It could be for a number of reasons, the theft of the pay phone or the unavailabilty of rec board members to supervise the center.(they require 2 adults to be there from 7:30 to 11p.m.) It would be nice if some residents would come to rec board meetings and volunteer a friday night.  It would be an easy way to help out the entire community not only the kids.  I have even thought about it, but I am usually working patrol on friday nights.  Any ways this is just a suggestion.