State should establish regional police forces

Published: May 18, 2009

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Paul Nardozzi, a Dunmore councilman who works as a police officer in other communities, recently was named police chief in Clifford Twp. and was fired as a Dickson City patrolman.

Mr. Nardozzi claimed he should not have been fired for leaving his patrol shift in Dickson City in order to attend a township supervisors' meeting in Clifford Twp., without first notifying or receiving permission from his superiors.

One has to wonder what his reaction would be as chief in Clifford Twp., or as a Dunmore councilman, if an officer in one of those communities decided to take a powder mid-shift in order to attend to personal business.

At any rate, the Nardozzi situation is a good illustration of why Pennsylvania's government should move more aggressively to establish professional regional police forces statewide.

Throughout the region many police officers work long hours on multiple part-time shifts for multiple communities, at rates that do not justify the risks inherent in police work.

The root cause of that situation is that Pennsylvania has far too many small municipal governments that cannot truly afford to fund their own police departments. So they fudge. The state is awash in one-person departments featuring a "chief" with no subordinates. Games of musical chairs like that now afoot in Clifford Twp. are all too common. And every year more small towns abandon police coverage and expect state police to provide coverage, which is unfair to every taxpayer in the state.

The state government encourages the establishment of professional regional police forces with incentives such as startup grants and help with training. But too many small governments remain unwilling to yield the political turf that comes with a police department, or too willing to irresponsibly place the local burden on state police.

State lawmakers should mandate the consolidation of tiny local departments into professional regional forces in order to fairly spread the cost of coverage, minimize political interference in police operations and offer police officers the chance at true careers rather than the challenge of cobbling together part-time shifts just to make ends meet.

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15 posted comments

Any intelligent person would realize that Paul Nardozzi was set up! He had coverage for his time that he was gonna be gone so he can attend the meeting in Clifford. At the last second his relief backs out and leaves him hanging!!! That officer should be penalized for his classless actions!! Mr Nardozzi acted to protocol and called his chief!!! It was an obvious set up by his fellow officers!! It's sad but true
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Rachel,  05/20/2009 21:15
Pennsylvania has the most regionalized police structure in the nation, the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP). The PSP provides full and part-time first line coverage to about 85% of the landmass, about 65% of all municipalities, and about 27% of the states population - all with 19% of the states police officers. To regionalize municipal police departments is to recreate what already exists; a solution that has been proven to be very efficient and professional. The answer may be to reconsider PSP funding to enable enhancement of services to more less resourced municipalities.
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Garret,  05/19/2009 17:47
Mr. Nardozzi should be fired and never allowed to be employed in the public sector again. He left a borough with inadequate police coverage for complete personal gain. If you can not do a job Mr. Nardozzi, maybe you shouldn't accept it. You are an embarrassment to our local police departments.
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DontSugarCoatIt,  05/19/2009 10:58
If not the police departments, I think it's high time that the fire stations were regionalized.
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Pat,  05/18/2009 23:22
If not the police departments, I think it's high time that the fire stations were regionalized.
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Pat,  05/18/2009 22:59
Ed: I agree with you totally on the Act 120 matter. I'm not against the basic training and update requirements, in fact I feel it is way better than the old days of handing someone a badge and gun and show him/her the streets. But you are correct, in this area we have Lackawanna College. The training should never have been allowed in a college environment. It should be done by Pennsylvania State Police or the state should have established police department academies. For example, Allentown Police Department's Academy is the regional training center for Act 120 candidates in Lehigh County. You are correct that the schools will accept and take anybody's tuition. The department I worked for received a lot of officers we knew couldn't have passed either academic, physical or firearms requirements. However, what would happen to the pool of applicants if they started washing out candidates. And as you put it, the schools accept these candidates knowing full well there are not enough positions for them to fill. It should be run like PSP in Hershy. They hire x amount of troopers and then they are put into the academy. Also their training is in a military environment, more stringent and for a greater length of time. When a trooper is done with his training, he is pretty nuch ready to go.
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Rolo Tomassi,  05/18/2009 21:55
To the guy whose been there and knows: Sorry I don't share your superior intelect. The only advantage I can see in regionalization is the elimination of duplications of ranking officers in the departments in the county. However, most of the chiefs in Lackawanna County are out in the field and not behind a desk. If regionalization were, for instance, to be done in Lackawanna County, I don't think it would benefit anyone if Scranton were included since it would draw most of the resources from the other municipalities with the amount of activity in the city. As for the other boroughs and townships, they currently assist each other when each is in need. That was the whole purpose behind the municipal police jurisdiction act. Additionally, you have a Pennsylvania State Police Troop in the county, a sheriff's department and county detectives providing service to the county's municipalities. This is not to mention the FBI, DEA and county wide drug task force who all co-ordinate investigations throughout the county. We are not talking about a county with a massive rural area nor a county which would benefit greatly from regionalization. As I mentioned in my earlier post, regionalization does not reduce costs of police service to participating municipalities. It does have an advantage under certain circumstances, but I don't think it would in Lackawanna County. Now I could be wrong since we are not as intelligent as you are, but the Nardozzi incident really makes no justification for regionaliazation. That was simply an act of stupidity.
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Rolo Tomassi,  05/18/2009 21:36
He should be let go in Clifford as well. Poor example, what would have happened if he was needed in an emergency in Dickson? No one knew where he was. Not a patrolman I would want to have my faith in.
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Jerry,  05/18/2009 18:11
Consolidate the Lower valley as one dept and the upper C'dale area and the Abington area.

That will do it!

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john,  05/18/2009 12:50
Most of the police Depts in the Rural communities are a joke.Why not do as they do down South have the County Sheriff police the area.
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Lenny,  05/18/2009 12:23
Rolo makes some very valid points. What he fails to address however is the increasing number of cadets enrolling in the act 120 police academy. These clases are nothing more than a money maker for the hosting schools. Seeing that most of the graduates will never be hired fulltime anywhere. The best they can hope for is a low paying no benefit part time job. That is unless they are related to a politician from some hack town that wants to play police commissioner and tell the police who they can and can't arrest!
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Ed White,  05/18/2009 10:30
Regionalization is the way to go. Anyone who opposes it is functioning on a level of less than normal intelect. The problem is that too many small town politicians want to feel important and have control over their paltry understaffed and overworked police officers so they and their cronies can do things such as drive while intoxicated and get away with it, among other things.
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A guy who has been there and knows...,  05/18/2009 09:33
I couldn't agree more Mr. Tomassi. I have read several editorials in this paper, over the years, pushing regionlization of police departments. I don't recall any articles quoting any independent studies on the pros and cons to such a move. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is great for furthering ideas, like regionization, and has even passed legislation in certain areas. They, however, usually mean added costs to the taxpayer. For instance the 911 system. I don't know the circumstances throughout the rest of the commonwealth, but in Lackawanna County I don't feel the merging of the Scranton Police communications and the rest of the county was a good idea. I know the purpose was to relieve Scranton of the burdon of maintaining a seperate dispatch system, but I feel the whole system has suffered as a result. The taxpayers are now assessed fees for their home phone lines and cellular. That fee in Lackawanna County is $ 1.25 per number. Scranton's volumn of service is a very big drain on the county system which required additional dispatchers. Furthermore, the fees can only be used for equipment upgrade and not the salaries of the dispatchers. Unless that has changed over the years I thought Mr. Dubas was quoted as using the fees for salaries and may be in violation of the law. Lastly, I feel the service from 911 to the City has resulted in poorer service to Scranton. In any event, Scranton's financial problems were spread to the rest of the taxpayers in Lackawanna County, who is now experiencing financial problems itself.. The commonwealth should not be legislating issues that mandate changes to local government like regionlization. That is something that can be easily accomplished by the municipalities themselves. And using the Nardozzi incident for a justification of regionalization is ridiculous.
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POP,  05/18/2009 09:19
That idea, while I don't agree with it, would certainly make the officers of the Scranton Police Dept. happy. Their income and benefits would increase over night since they are the lowest paid full time police department in the entire state. Pitiful.
But speaking of consolidation, with your circulation numbers isn't it only a matter of time before you join the Times and the Voice?
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annie,  05/18/2009 09:13
Mr. Editor:

What you failed to mention in this editorial is that regionalization of police department usually comes with an increase in operating costs. Don't take my word for it, you quoted the Chief of Pocono Regional as stating that. You aslo make note in your editorial that these small deprtment officers are usually not compensated at rates commensurate with their inherent risks. Most of these officers receive a level of pay and benefits greater than the officers in the Scranton Police Department, which your paper has attributed to the cause of Scranton's financial demise. Or maybe you would like to see a regionalization of part time police officers with low pay and benefits and little concern for a law enforcement career. In any event, it would be refreshing if the Times would establish some credibility in their views.

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Rolo Tomassi,  05/18/2009 08:23
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