A growing share of Pennsylvania communities have taken a more regional approach to policing to cut costs and enhance efficiency, but decision-makers in Centre County showed little enthusiasm for an idea that can be politically unpopular.

Functionally regionalizing some combination of the five local police departments in the county could mean improved police management and supervision, more uniform enforcement and significant cost savings. Skeptical governing bodies often fear a loss of control over the police department, while some residents express concern that it could weaken ties with the community.

“Public opinion matters. If there is not general support in the community, regionalization is not likely to happen,” said Darrel Stephens, a retired police executive with more than 50 years of experience who consults on police leadership and management issues nationwide. “Politics plays a much stronger role in making a decision to consolidate or regionalize policing. The idea has been considered in many places around the country but never gets far because of political opposition.”

Police departments are often the largest expense in a municipality’s budget. The five with their own in Centre County — State College and Bellefonte, as well as Patton, Ferguson and Spring townships — budgeted nearly $23 million this year.

Of those, State College has by far the biggest budget — about $12 million — and the biggest force that serves the largest area, with College and Harris townships essentially buying police coverage from the borough. Calculating the cost is an inexact science, but they are projected to pay the borough more than $2 million combined.

Penn State police’s jurisdiction is all university property, with other Centre County police departments assisting at events including football games.

The concept of regionalization is not new in Pennsylvania, a state with more police departments than any other in the country. Bellefonte and Spring Township mulled the idea in the early ‘90s, while Patton Township explored the possibility near the turn of the century.

The measures failed then and it does not appear attitudes have changed significantly in the more than two decades since.

A new approach in the Bellefonte area?

Earlier this year, the Bellefonte Police Department faced turmoil when three officers and its chief stepped down. Elected officials appeared to give no consideration to disbanding its police department in favor of state police coverage, and opted to look for a new chief and hire at least two officers in the smallest department in the county.

Still, longtime borough Manager Ralph Stewart — who has spoken for years about challenges with the borough’s stagnant tax base — wrote in an email to the Centre Daily Times that “options like contracting should be explored along with regional policing.”

“I don’t want to get off topic here, but some day there could be a county-wide model for police, fire and EMS,” Stewart wrote. “All of these critical services have challenges.”

Spring Township, meanwhile, has grown in recent years and could serve as a regional anchor.

Milesburg, for example, reached out last year about contracting with the department, but township Manager Mike Danneker and police Chief Adam Salyards said nothing came to fruition. Walker Township has also considered the idea.

“We as a township aren’t going to go out and solicit contracting, but if a municipality came to us and said ‘Hey, can we sit down and have a conversation about potentially contracting services?’ I think we’d come to the table and have those discussions,” Danneker said.

Perhaps no community in Centre County is better positioned to add local police coverage than Benner Township, an area that saw its population grow nearly 4.5% just from 2022 to 2023.

The last time a formal police consolidation study was completed in the Nittany Valley Region in 2005, it found there wasn’t a cost savings for Bellefonte and Spring Township unless a third municipality joined.

The only time Benner Township considered adding local police coverage was when former Gov. Tom Wolf proposed fees for communities that relied on the state police, longtime Secretary Sharon Royer said.

It’s unclear how the township’s three supervisors view the possibility. Supervisors Larry Lingle and Randy Moyer did not respond to an email from the CDT, while fellow Supervisor Kathy Evey wrote in an email that she is “in no position to comment.”

She wrote it is “a subject that would need discussion at a public meeting.”

What about Happy Valley?

College Township has contracted with the borough for police services since 1976, an arrangement that township Manager Adam Brumbaugh said has “worked well for a long time.”

The contract calls for an average of 265 hours of coverage per week at a rate of $121.02 per hour. The amount of hours the township receives often fluctuates based on demand.

“We have access to state police services at no cost, but it does not provide a level of service that the township over these many years has come to expect,” Brumbaugh said. “All the councils that I have worked with have held steady or have increased the number of hours per week that we pay for. That’s in response to the needs of, in essence, a growing community.

“We’re not growing particularly fast, but it’s still a growing community. We have many events, we have a lot of commercial-type activities and there are needs that are better served by having access to local police services than having to rely on the state police.”

Given the way the contract is structured, it’s difficult to say with certainty how much the township saves by contracting rather than operating its own police department.

But its $1.67 million budget for police services comes out to about $155 per person. Patton Township’s budget is $4.13 million, or about $265 per person. Ferguson Township’s budget is $3.62 million, or about $190 per person.

If College Township were to try and replicate on its own the service it receives from the borough, Brumbaugh said it would cost “substantially more.” The township also doesn’t have to worry about hiring, discipline, training and other administrative headaches.

“Any place that presently does not have local police coverage I believe would find a very similar situation if they were to decide to purchase hours through a contract,” Brumbaugh said. “I think that they would find that to be a very cost-effective model versus starting a department from scratch.”

Losing local control is often one of the top arguments against contracting or functionally regionalizing, but that hasn’t been the case in College or Harris townships.

Echoed by Brumbaugh, Harris Township Manager Mark Boeckel wrote in an email that the township is “very satisfied with the quality of the police services we receive.” Boeckel said he has no reason to believe the contract won’t continue for the foreseeable future.

Harris Township pays the same rate as College Township, but for 76 hours of service per week.

“With the amount of money allocated for police services on an annual basis, we would not be able to provide the same level of service if the Township had its own police department,” Boeckel wrote.

Patton Township police Chief Tyler Jolley said he does not see a benefit in a regional police department for either residents or police officers. He expressed concern that residents may feel less connected to officers in a regional department.

“The relationships we have established in our community are largely a reason why we don’t see widespread complaints about the local police departments in the Centre Region,” Jolley wrote.

Patton Township Manager Amy Farkas, who previously held the same position in the contract-oriented Harris Township, largely defended the Centre Region’s current model of policing.

But she also opened the door for change if there were “significant shifts” in cost, ability to provide coverage and the “regional framework that is currently in place in the Centre Region.”

“Regionalizing isn’t the end all be all, as it’s a long and complicated process that requires a lot of study and discussion,” Farkas wrote. “That’s one of the reasons why we don’t see more regional forces in PA.”

Ferguson Township Manager Centrice Martin wrote in an email that it’s unlikely the township would benefit from contracting, citing the existing department’s response times, ability to enforce ordinances and more.

“Having a local police force allows for patrol to focus and narrow on specific concerns as expressed by residents as well as monitor local activity to determine if there are any observations for potential illegal activity,” Martin wrote. “Local residents also receive the benefit of having local police respond to assist with fire and EMS calls within our jurisdiction.”

Local police officers in Pennsylvania often carry out duties that are not police functions, but have become very much part of the job. Most of those services are discontinued when departments regionalize, leaving municipalities to look elsewhere if someone calls for help with a skunk in their basement, is locked out of their house or needs help with a faulty smoke detector.

But according to an 80-page how-to guide from the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development, most communities find it more cost effective to carry out those duties with nonuniformed employees.

The role of state police coverage

More than half of Pennsylvania’s communities rely fully on the state police. They, just the like the remaining 28 in Centre County, don’t pay a dime for it.

That responsibility falls to all taxpayers in Pennsylvania, including those that also see some of their tax dollars go toward funding their local police department.

Whether urban or rural, there is no incentive for communities without local police coverage to look into contracting or regionalizing absent having other needs. If leaders don’t want to pay for police coverage, they don’t have to.

Local leaders who spoke with the CDT were complimentary of the work done by state police at Rockview, but were also candid that the jobs of troopers is often different from local police officers.

They don’t enforce ordinances such as curfews, parking restrictions and those that stop people from having overgrown lawns, and are are not assigned to a single municipality. They are less able to focus on quality-of-life issues.

Attempts to charge for state police coverage have repeatedly been unsuccessful, and it remains to be seen if lawmakers will revisit the proposal in the future.

“It could be a matter of when and not if that happens,” Farkas wrote. “And if that happens, then I think that opens the door to reaching out to College, Harris, Halfmoon and Benner to see if there is a different model that would serve our residents better.”

Nine of the 10 consolidated police departments that responded to the DCED reported operating at an average 24% lower cost when compared to nearby traditional police departments that are similar in size.

With fewer officers, vehicles, ranking positions and headquarters, the DCED definitively wrote “the cost of providing police services is lower in communities served by consolidated police departments.”

Has this worked anywhere else in Pennsylvania?

About 5% of Pennsylvania communities are served by a regional police department. There were 38 in the state as of April 2023, ranging in size from zero to 65 full-time officers — about the size of the State College Police Department.

Some are in counties with major population hubs like Pittsburgh and the Philadelphia suburbs, while others are in rural Clearfield and and Mifflin counties.

The newest in the state, the Clearfield Area Regional Police Department, began operating in March 2023 after merging the borough’s department with Lawrence Township’s. Like Bellefonte and Spring Township, the borough is surrounded by the township.

Chief Vince McGinnis and Assistant Chief Julie Curry each spoke positively about merging the two departments.

McGinnis said day-to-day operations of the department are “just about the same,” while Curry said it has helped ease the nationwide difficulties of staffing a police department.

And with a fully-staffed department, Curry said it has given her and McGinnis more time to focus supervision and other administrative tasks like applying for grants that can help replace aging or buy new equipment. It has also helped with training.

“That was a huge problem when we were smaller. You couldn’t even cover the shift and allow somebody to go to training because you were literally running one-man shifts if you would allow somebody off to go to training,” McGinnis said. “Now, we have enough people to cover a shift and we’re able to get some people training. We’re still working on getting the new officers trained as well, which is easier at this time.”

Complaints from the public have been few and far between, Curry said. In fact, each of the department’s top two administrators said the department has received “very strong support from the community.”

No jobs were lost, McGinnis said. When the departments merged, they had 20 officers. As a regional department, their full complement is 25 officers.

The department has not seen significant, if any, cost savings but McGinnis said that was expected in the first year or two as the department put new decals on its patrol vehicles, ordered new uniforms and more.

But as the national reckoning on policing continues, more communities in Pennsylvania may look for a new approach to one of the country’s oldest institutions. It remains to be seen if it will take hold in Centre County.

“I think that it’s a trend that is going to continue to happen,” Curry said. “It’s honestly something that I would recommend just based on the fact that we were able to staff it much better.

“You have to be competitive in this day and age for law enforcement, especially good, solid, hardworking individuals.”