HARRISBURG — Upholding law and order at the local level comes with a hefty price tag in Pennsylvania.
Municipalities report spending $1.3 billion on police services in fiscal 2012-13, according to a new legislative study that examines approaches to promoting mergers of police forces.
The $1.3 billion sum doesn’t include what Philadelphia and Pittsburgh spent, but it covers costs reported by nearly 1,000 municipal police departments, regional police forces and municipalities that contract with others for police services.
In addition, the state police spent $540 million in 2012 to provide both full- and part-time police services to more than 1,700 municipalities that don’t have a police department, the study said.
Merging police departments and requiring municipalities to pay for state police coverage have been topics for debate in Harrisburg for decades.
Yet more than four decades after the first regional police forces were created, only 35 such units exist across the state.
Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department, Stroud Area Regional Police Department and Eastern Pike Regional Police Department are examples of regionalism in Northeast Pennsylvania.
Hopefully, the study by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee will lead to more regional police forces in Northeast Pennsylvania, thereby building on existing regional efforts to fight street crime and gang violence, said Sen. John Yudichak, D-14, Plymouth Twp. Mr. Yudichak is a long-time advocate of municipal cooperation and has spurred creation of council of governments in Luzerne and Carbon counties.
“Clearly, when you talk about spending $1.3 billion on local police costs, are you getting the best value for the tax dollar?” Mr. Yudichak asked.
“We have to have crime solutions that are regional in nature,” added Mr. Yudichak. “Criminals do not care about municipal boundaries.”
This recognition has led to Operation Gang Up in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties and the deployment of the state attorney general’s Mobile Street Crime Unit earlier this year in Hazleton, added Mr. Yudichak.
Local taxpayers bear the brunt of the municipal police cost, although the state provides some funding to help underwrite police pension costs and returns revenue for motor vehicle violations cited by local police.
Costs and loss of control are two key factors Pennsylvania towns consider when it comes to merging their police department with a neighboring municipality, the study said.
The size and demographics of a municipality, its approach to policing and support from local residents should also be part of any cost-benefit analysis, the study added. It determined that regional police departments offer a higher level of police coverage and service which can mean more spending in the short-term.
The study urges that lawmakers pass legislation to set guidelines for regional police forces and provide start-up funding to them.
Mr. Yudichak suggested that rising costs is the driving force behind mergers.
“That is forcing them to look at state police coverage or regional coverage,” he added.
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rswift@timesshamrock.com