Beginning March 1, the Pennsylvania State Police will respond to emergency calls in Kennett Township between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m.
The Kennett Township supervisors voted Wednesday to make that change to the police coverage. That means the township police department, which has been operating 24/7 for several years, will cover the township from 6 a.m. to midnight. There is no charge to use the state police services, and the township police department staffing will remain the same, according to interim Township Manager Amy Heinrich.
“This is clearly a difficult decision to make,” said Supervisor Pat Muller. “But I personally feel that this is a good step forward in getting our officers the relief they need so they are rested and refreshed.”
Supervisors’ Vice Chair Richard Leff said it was time to make some changes.
“We’re trying to find the best path forward with the resources we have,” Leff said. “We think this is a reasonable balance and will still protect residents.”
Supervisors’ Chair Geoffrey Gamble talked about the “fiduciary responsibility” the board has to Kennett’s residents.
“While the board of supervisors is very proud of our police department and believes they provide a professional service to the community, the board has a fiduciary responsibility to the community who have charged the township with finding creative ways to contain costs,” Gamble said in a press release issued after the meeting. “Partnering with the Pennsylvania State Police for six hours overnight may allow us to do that.”
It’s a plan that township Police Chief Matt Gordon said he had concerns about, but also one that was “the best-case scenario for the police department.”
“This allows us overlaps during the day that we never had before,” he said at the meeting, adding that the change would free up township police supervisors from covering patrol shifts and would allow multiple officers to work at one time, as opposed to officers working solo shifts and working what Heinrich said was “very high levels of overtime.”
Gordon’s concerns center around the possibility of serious crimes happening overnight.
“That’s usually when a lot of these things happen; when people are sleeping,” he said, adding that the state police, like Kennett’s police force, also deal with short staffing, as well as covering a territory more than 10 times bigger than Kennett’s.
“Lt. Dan Steele, who is the state commander for the Avondale barracks, says they are adequately staffed to provide this coverage to Kennett Township,” Heinrich said in a press release. “He has also agreed to provide detailed data to the township each month including call volume, type, and state police response time so the township can monitor the success of state police coverage.”
Heinrich said the township is in a position “where we do not believe that the current staffing level can adequately cover a 24/7 response.” She said the chief and detectives had been working to cover shifts, officers were working by themselves and working a lot of overtime.
“The township is not prepared to take on the additional costs associated with further hiring nor do we have the physical space for a larger police force,” Heinrich said. “The situation has only worsened, leading to overworked and exhausted officers and the potential for safety risks.”
Ninety-two percent of the department’s calls occur between 6 a.m. and midnight, she added.
“We’re concentrating our resources on where we have more calls,” Heinrich said.
About Monica Fragale
Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies. She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field. But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard. Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.
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