HARRISBURG - As he juggles demands for troopers, state police Commissioner Frank Noonan said one of his greatest fears is that a fiscally distressed third-class city will disband its local police force and seek state police protection.
Mr. Noonan, a Clarks Summit resident, said Wednesday that while no specific cities have approached the state police to handle law enforcement coverage, he doesn't view it as an idle threat. He said it would be a "heavy lift" for the state police to meet such a request.
Carbondale is the only third-class city in Lackawanna County.
During the past year, 12 smaller municipalities have disbanded their police departments and 10 municipalities have switched from a full-time to part-time police department and turned to the state police to fill the void, Mr. Noonan told the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Sometimes, the state police have been given as little as 24 hours notice to start patrolling a municipality, said Mr. Noonan.
"We provide full-time or part-time police protection to nearly 67 percent of Pennsylvania municipalities, comprising 27 percent of the population," he added.
A panel member, Sen. John Blake, D-22, Archbald, said the state needs to provide some type of incentives to keep municipalities from disbanding their police forces.
Meanwhile, Mr. Noonan works to train new troopers to respond to a wave of retirements of veteran troopers.
Gov. Tom Corbett proposes spending $14.7 million in the fiscal 2013-14 state budget to pay for three cadet classes that will train a total of 290 new troopers. Another $6 million is earmarked to hire 90 civilian dispatchers so troopers currently doing that work can return to patrol duties.
The governor's proposal is the first step to have cadet classes on a regular basis, not just sporadically when money for them is appropriated, said Mr. Noonan.
Contact the writer: rswift@timesshamrock.com
Editor's Nore: an earlier version of this story stated that Carbondale was the only third-class city in the state. It is the only third-class city in Lackawanna County.