Local Government TV

Monday, September 25, 2023

Does Bethlehem Need More Police?

Robert Virgilio, who owns and operates the Granola Factory, was at Bethlehem City Council last week. He even brought some samples of the popular Bethlehem Bar. He spoke highly of Bethlehem police, nut is concerned that the force is shrinking while the city itself is growing. He said the public should know whether there's been an increase in crime commensurate with the increase in population, but unfortunately, "there's not a whole lot in the newspaper anymore." He recently read of a shooting on Ettwein Street, but there was no follow-up story. He also noted that the city police website contains no online blotter as it did a few years ago. 

Virgilio suggested that Bethlehem police should establish a crime map like Lower Saucon Tp "so that the public can know what's going on with crime and any kind of illegal activity that's taking place so they can determine whether it's close to home, take a stand with crime watch, be aware of it and also so they can be aware of the fact that our police are taking care of these problems."  

This small business owner has obviously been rattled by another recent shooting, this one at the 540 Democratic Club on New Street. 

Mayor Willie Reynolds stated in response that Bethlehem has had 150 officers for a number of years, but keeping those officers is a challenge. He said fewer people are taking the Civil Service test to replace retiring officers. He noted that six officers were hired a few months ago, and another six are in the police academy. He also said an arrest was made within 24 hours of the Ettwein Street shooting. 

According to Bethlehem's webpage, there are 154 "members" of the Bethlehem police department. It is unclear how many of that number are officers.   

24 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Amazing, Wee Willie actually spoke to a commoner.

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  3. There is a crime map-

    https://www.ucr.pa.gov/PAUCRSPUBLIC/CrimeAnalytics/index.html

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  4. Why do I need to log into the UCR site? It was freely accessable before.

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  5. I'm unable to use that crime map. You have to be a registered user.

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  6. The moral in the police department is at a all time low.

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    1. The moral in any department that is in the criminal justice field is down. When you get SH-T on by everyone until the day they need you it sucks. But most good officers in any department also do it for that inner feeling of doing something for your community and self. Politicians are the worst will sit there and curse,put you down, not give raises. But when you do something good in the public eye they want thier arm around you for that picture.

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    2. The moral in each department is at an all time low. Within the city that is.

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  7. Bernie - Bethlehem is very far along in making data open to residents and others interested in statistics about the city. If this link - https://maps-bethlehem-pa.opendata.arcgis.com/ - doesn’t work, using the search “Bethlehem pa open data” will.

    The platform is built on the near-universal standard ArcGIS product. It’s the same product driving our two counties’ parcel databases, PennDOT mapping, etc. As of today we can see leaf collection, snow removal, historic districts and structures, and more. Nothing except an instruction from city management is preventing the publication of this dataset in a format anybody can access.

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  8. You can thank BLM, the Defund the Police movement and their Democrat allies for the mess every city in the country is in. The demonized police for years. Now everyone has cell phone cameras to record every police encounter. If the perp is black, it is now assumed that any arrest is racist profiling. Cops feel like they are walking on eggshells . No wonder recruitment numbers are down, and most cities have large vacancies on their police forces. And why gun sales keep climbing. Thank Bernie and his left-wing socialist fans for this disaster.

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  9. I believe crimemapping.com may be used by some neighboring municipalities that actually don’t just preach transparency, but live it, too. With the death of newspapers and the police blotter, the public is kept in the dark regarding actual crime statistics. Major violence is low, but what about petty larceny, drunk driving, and things like that? City Council wants an ignorant public because the dumbing down of America means few questions are asked. The gentleman is right — there is no follow-up by any reporter and that, my friends, means there is zero accountability to the people. The people, however, have allowed that to happen.

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  10. Why is the morale at the police department at a all time low?

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    1. Recently there was an article online about the Fire Department as well.

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  11. @11:17 - I agree but it's because there are cameras everywhere and they are not able to inflict their brut force to anyone who questions them!

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  12. Police are upholders of white supremacy culture and never prevent crime, they cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits ever year, and shame good cops when they dare cross the “thin blue line.”

    And yeah, I’d rather call a crackhead when I’m in trouble, at least they’ll approach the scene with compassion, and chances are I won’t get wrongfully arrested or even killed for being black.

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    1. You are really good at labeling people. And what do you say about cops that are black? Or the Asians? The Hispanics? Heck now a days there are lots from the Indian/Arabic countries.

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  13. Left wing dems want to defund police--vote for the dems means only success.

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  14. Reading the last few (ignorant) comments helps answer the question about morale. My gosh, people, you are impugning an entire group for the actions of a few.

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    1. Buzz off boomer, there is no such thing as a good cop when they’ll all complicit in corruption. And when police officers complain, they’re labeled as rats and traitors, no thanks. Tear the entire system down.

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    2. Ah, the voice of a disgruntled lawbreaker whose utopia would be no law or order.

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    3. Utopia would be cutting the heads off of bootlickers like yourself who paint themselves as elitist but are one injury away from being homeless.

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  15. The democrats left the left wing take over--the truth hurts.

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  16. Currently 144 officers, minus 4 long term sick leave, minus 6 in the academy, minus 2 weekend warriors flying drones full-time out of willow Grove. Officers on the schedule = Low 130s.

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  17. There are something like 50 crossing guards who are employed by the Bethlehem Police Dept. That may skew some of the numbers that some people use to describe police staffing.

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