Regional cops for South Valley towns touted

NANTICOKE – Three South Valley communities discussed combining their police departments into a regional unit to control costs at a crowded public forum held Thursday night at Luzerne County Community College.

State Rep. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke, said it would be financially prudent for Hanover Township, Nanticoke and Newport Township to form a regional police department because all three are struggling financially like so many other communities in the state.

“It the most responsible we can be with tax dollars by creating greater efficiency, greater protection and controlling costs,” Yudichak said.

A feasibility study conducted by Bryan D. Ross on behalf of the Luzerne County Municipal Cooperation Commission was presented to an overflowing crowd of residents, police officers, police chiefs and elected officials from the three communities to determine if the South Valley could support such a venture. Yudichak is chairman of the commission. A combination of state grants and county funds paid for the roughly $6,000 study costs.

Ross, who had been a police chief for the Berks-Lehigh Regional Police Department for 14 years, said after reviewing financial and statistical data and each community’s coverage area he determined it would be beneficial for the three to form a regional force.

He pointed out that the study shows the communities would spend about the same amount of money they each are spending now to protect the approximately 28,000 citizens residing in the region, while increasing the opportunities for advanced training and creation of specialty divisions within the department.

Nanticoke Mayor John Bushko raised concerns about how many officers would be patrolling each town.

“In Nanticoke it’s two officers minimum (per shift). Usually it’s three,” Bushko said. “I don’t want to get involved in this and have less coverage for people in town.”

Ross said the great thing about regional police departments is they no longer patrol a city’s boundaries, but work in zones throughout the entire region so response times would not be dramatically increased.

A regional police department would function out of one headquarters and be required to pay rent to whichever municipality’s building it occupies.

The department would be its own entity into its self – responsible for paying its own bills and handling the appropriate administrative work.

“This agency works as a standalone agency. It has its own solicitor,” Ross said. “They can borrow money. They can build a building. They can do almost anything a municipality can do except levy taxes.”

Ross cautioned that if the communities want to move forward with the regionalization plan, it won’t occur overnight.

A regional police commission must be formed that would be responsible for running the department.

Smaller police departments, such as Warrior Run or Ashley, could eventually consolidate with the South Valley Regional Police Department at a later time if both sides agreed to it, Ross said.

However, the communities also have the option of not creating a regional police department.