A proposal to disband the Barrett Township police department and pay for police protection from a nearby regional police department could save the township about $200,000 a year, officials said Tuesday.
Township residents peppered officials at a public hearing on the proposal, questioning whether police response times would increase and what would happen if someday the Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department folded.
One resident, Dave Dalton, told the township supervisors he was circulating a petition to keep the township’s police department just the way it is, not merged with Pocono Mountain Regional.
“Once the police department is gone, it’s gone forever,” Dalton said. “That’s what scaring everyone. Their afraid they will wind up with state police (coverage).” Dalton said he knows a state trooper who told him state police coverage of municipalities is hardly the gold standard.
One woman in the rear of the room agreed.
“I think we are getting screwed,” she said. “We’re losing our police department.”
Under the proposal, no Barrett Township police officer would lose his job. Each would join Pocono Mountain Regional. The township would pay about $480,000 a year to Pocono Mountain Regional for some 120 hours a week of police coverage, a number that was reached based on a statistical analysis of the department’s police calls.
The township would actually have 24/7 police coverage all year, said Chris Wagner, the police chief of the regional department, because police cruisers would always be ready to respond, in large numbers if necessary, when a police call came from the township.
“It’s a different style of policing,” Wagner said. “There’s always a backup available.”
Given its larger size, the regional department can handle multiple calls at the same time, he said. It also offers officers more opportunity for specialized training and advancement that is simply not available in small departments like Barrett Township, he said.
Ralph Megliola, the chairman of the board of supervisors, said the township can “band aid” its financial problems through 2015-2016 but by then will be in a tight spot.
The tax rate is so high now that the township would have to petition the court for approval to increase taxes. If that failed, he said, the township would have to start laying off police officers.
Township resident Tom Dente said the possible loss of the local police department was just the latest sign of the times.
“The library is on the way out, we lost our schools and multiple businesses,” Dente said. “This is a by-product of our country shrinking.”
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