Visit Bath ... or Upper Mount Bethel ... or Williams or Lower Macungie ... or any of a number of municipalities in the Lehigh Valley. Some, like Upper Mount Bethel, are very large. Others, like Bath, are small. But they have one thing in common. No local police. They rely on the Pennsylvania State Police to perform the function that would otherwise be performed by local police officers. Pa state law requires every municipality to have a fire department, but no such requirement exists for police. What this means is that taxpayers in economically challenged urban centers like Allentown or Philly are being for cops in the burbs. It also means that people who live in large municipalities like Upper Mount Bethel, second largest in the state, can wait 40 minutes for state police to respond to an emergency call.
According to Spotlight.Pa, there are 4,200 troopers, with a cap of 4,410. The Shapiro administration proposes the elimination of this cap, but that will just make it easier for local municipalities to shed the unpleasant cost of actually protecting their own citizens.
What makes more sense, in my view, is to enact legislation that essentially imposes a death penalty on any municipality that is unable to afford the cost of protecting its own citizens. Regional policing of contiguous local governments, which would provide faster response times and actually provide for the public safety, would be permitted. State police protection would be permitted only with an annual assessment based on the estimated work required.
The Lehigh Valley has been balkanized since its inception with far too many municipalities that lead to very weak local governments that fail to provide basic services. Just last week, I say how one rainstorm turned Messinger Street into a river in Bangor. It apparently happens all the time.
If a local government is unable to serve its own community, it should no longer exist.
32 comments:
You act as though Allentown gets no benefit from the state police. As an Allentown resident, I can assure you that the state police are quite active in the city, and involved in any number of police activities in the city (like drug investigations, criminal manhunts, anti-gang efforts, and surveillance operations with state police helicopters, etc).
While APD handles most interactions with the public, the State Police are certainly there in the background.
Far from subsidizing the state police in the suburbs, Allentown seems to get its fair share from the state police, and could probably get more if city leaders actually wanted to be aggressive in fighting crime in the city.
When I travel to the suburbs and rural areas of the Valley, I don’t believe I’ve ever felt less safe than I do in the Valley’s cities. If the suburbs can control their crime with only state police coverage, more power to them - they’re doing something right.
People move to rural areas understanding the risks of no police department, often fewer risks compared to living in the cities. State police are paid for by taxpayers, not city residents alone. To insinuate that cites are paying for rural protection is really just a attempt to increase costs to all by requiring more government employees. Pensions, healthcare costs that raise the costs to those who choose to move were costs are less and quality of life is better.
Rural residents usually reject attempts for a local police deportment, understanding the cost risk, benefits and find them lacking.
Would you be willing to disband the Pa. state police in favor of more local police? It sounds like more government, more taxes, less freedom of choice for the citizens.
Hazle Twp outside Hazleton has 10 thousand people and no police department. We, the taxpayers, pay for the two troopers assigned to that municipality 24/7. This plays out all over the state. These residents should at least pay a fee or tax. The data center developers in Haxle are proposing enough money for each household to get 10k plus enough money to start their own police department. They should take since the development will be in an industrial area anyway. Humboldt industrial park.
Smaller communities should be made to pay a yearly fee based on historical responses or population. Or they could join the closet larger community, although I believe this would end up being more expensive.
I'm sure all those small twps and municipalities would love to have their taxes exponentially raised to hire police of their own. Great Bernie idea!*
If they cannot provide basic services, they should not exist and should merge with a municipality that can
Agreed. Take Nazareth for example: one school district supported by 3 municipalities, Upper, Lower and the Burough itself, consolidate already!
When they disbanded the UMBT police dept. my taxes never went down!
don't really care but how are the towns without their own police not being subsidized by the rest of us who have police. People complain about welfare on this site but for some reason can not see this as welfare.
Agreed. These “freeloaders” are getting away with not directly paying for their ”local” police protection. Yes, those residents pay PA state taxes that go toward State Police operations statewide (highways, supplementing local police when needed, etc.), but so do I. In addition, however, I pay municipal taxes that go toward my township’s local police department. The freeloaders like Bath, Williams Township, etc., are getting their local protection out of the statewide pot of State Police money.
Where is the evidence that these small municipalities and townships need their own police department? Is there evidence to support what you're trying to say? Has crime increased?
I think that’s the point - there are vast differences (population, rural/urban, etc.) in communities across the state, and the needs of every community in the state are vastly different.
Not every community in the state needs a police department, and that shouldn’t be the deciding factor in whether a municipality should exist.
Require municipalities to have police departments or join regional departments? That’s a hard NO.
Removing any cap on the number of state police troopers? That’s another hard NO.
Raising the current cap on troopers? That’s a YES, with a discussion to be had about how many to raise it by now.
Instituting a MINIMUM number of troopers? Sadly, I can see the day when a whacko governor might try to defund or remove the state police force entirely. So that’s another YES for me.
The biggest offender is Lower Macungie, a township with a population now larger than the city of Easton by a fair amount with a lot of commercial and industrial on top of it. A township with over 32,000 residents in the last census and likely still growing really should have its own place force. And it’s amusing that it literally surrounds two small boroughs a fraction of its size with their own police forces.
Some of our hardcore, self-reliant MAGA communities make the list.
The last alleged point is nonsense.
What is desperately needed is creation of more regional police departments, so that smaller municipalities can pool their resources and provide standardized training and oversight of operations while maintaining local responsiveness to emergency situations. This is also true for many municipal services such as the efforts of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission to promote regional zoning agreements.
-- Joe Welsh
Co-Founder and Director of Outreach & Government Relations
Lehigh Valley Justice Institute
at United Way
Bernie, I’ve said it for years many of these municipalities shall just swallow their pride and be eaten up by a stronger, larger, more competent municipality. Some will complain about taxes rising if that happens, however, as usual most of that is scare tactics and never comes to fruition.
Example: Glendon being eaten up by Easton City. I know Easton fire had an agreement to cover for fire services for a few years but I mean Glendon dissolving and the city of Easton assuming Glendons footprint. Can’t imagine the city needs to hire many more officers or fireman to cover a relatively small area and 200 residents? But gives those residents paid services, much larger public works, etc.
Don’t even get started with Chapman Quarries… or Roseto, east Bangor, freemansburg, etc. if less than 5,000 residents or less than a square mile in size, move aside!
Agree with Bernie about carrying one's own weight. But, PSP's function is begrudgingly forensic. They're essentially worthless to local municipalities. Aside from hiding in bushes along state roads and writing tickets to meet quotas, they do nothing but waste money. PSP should be disbanded. There. Problem solved.
If you are covered by state police there should be a fee. I’m getting soaked for my police department and yours.
I’m sure they wouldn’t, but why should the rest of the state pay for their police?
Outside of the Three City PDs, this should be a county issue. The duplication of services and equipment with all of these departments is out of hand. How many SWAT vehicles do we have here in the valley?
Anon 3:00 said:
“If you are covered by state police there should be a fee. I’m getting soaked for my police department and yours.”
I’m sure those municipalities could make quite a list of state programs that their residents pay for that go to larger cities and are of no benefit to them.
And places that have their own police force (like Allentown) also use the state police. Just because residents don’t see the state police operations doesn’t mean they’re not operating and assisting behind the scenes.
If we’re going down the road of paying only for what you’re using, does that mean that I don’t have to pay my school taxes because I don’t have any children (or any children in school)? Or should my neighbor who pays to send his children to private school get a rebate for his school taxes since he’s saving the district money by not sending his kids to public school?
Obviously, in the places without a police force residents there have decided that the amount of crime in their municipalities doesn’t warrant the cost of having their own police force or joining a regional force.
If another municipality doesn’t think that’s fair, they are free to vote to disband their own police force and rely solely on state police coverage.
That’s the real choice in this debate. Just because some municipalities have decided to have their own police doesn’t mean that others should be forced into the same decision.
This is a very incorrect statement. PSP rarely, if ever, does any enforcement inside of Allentown unless they see a traffic offense while driving through or chase someone into the city. A few times a year, they team up with the Allentown Police on special operations to saturate an area or do a big traffic detail, but once again, that is a few times a year. I would be willing to bet that over the past decade, PSP averaged, AT MOST, 0-5 arrests in Allentown a year.
My township is getting along just fine without regionalization. They turned it down many years ago and grew from a 2.5 officer department to 30 officers. They bought cars and equipment and built a new station - all without raising taxes. I've never thought we needed local cops. But it didn't cost me a dime and the department is generally respected. I don't want or need a regional approach.
Nice try. I’m paying for your police protection. You’re a freeloader pay up!!
Yeah, good luck with that!
What the hell are you babbling about-MAGA communities?? You are cray cray
Aah obviously not if they have to respond to crimes so there's that. Problem not solved.
PSP provides all or some police services to 65% of this states population as well as almost 80% of its land mass. This is in addition to highway and turnpike coverage. They do this with a compliment of 2,000 fewer Troopers than Philadelphia has police officers. These numbers don’t account for the assistance rendered to municipalities with their own full time police coverage.
That’s a lot of responsibility for people who hide behind bushes all day.
By far the biggest offender is Lower Macungie, a township with a population now larger than the city of Easton by a fair amount with a lot of commercial and industrial on top of it. A township with over 32,000 residents in the last census and likely still growing really should have its own place force. And it’s amusing that it literally surrounds two small boroughs a fraction of its size with their own police forces. They need to start their own police force or pay the adjoining communities to share their services as a fee. What does Lower Macungie residents think they are gods gift to all of the communities that pay their fare share for police services. They need to pay now no exceptions.
I am a retired Firefighter Fighter from the city of Bethlehem and he definitely will NOT GET MY VOTE.
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