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Curwensville police committee reviews stats
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
By Dianne Byers Staff Writer
CURWENSVILLE - Members of Curwensville Borough Council's police committee met last night with members of its police force to review, in depth, its monthly report for June and a quarterly report from April-June.
Mike Komonczi and Mary Ellen Read, committee members, were in attendance. Member Julie Girardi was absent.
Read said she requested the meeting because she wanted to know whether the department's new software, computer and equipment are still improving efficiency for Chief Dave Johnston and Mark Kelly, part-time officer, who make up the force. The resignation of the borough's other part-time officer, R. Stuart "Butch" Auber was accepted, effective immediately, at Monday's meeting of Curwensville Borough Council.
Committee members reviewed the reports which noted last month the officers responded to 57 calls including one armed robbery, four accidents, 14 traffic stops, three incidents involving drug activity, five harassment calls, four property thefts, one occurrence of trespassing and four calls for disorderly conduct.
For the second quarter of the year, the department's officers answered a total of 236 calls. Read said she believed the quarterly amount is a high volume for officers working eight hours per day. She also noted the reports do not include time spent working with the county's drug task force or attending court sessions.
Johnson reiterated, as he had at a previous council meeting, although the number of officers has decreased dramatically, the number of calls the borough's police department is asked to address has nearly quadrupled since 2008.
Both men said, and the committee agreed, there is a need for additional full- and part-time officers. Johnson has said at previous meetings he would like to see council, at a minimum, hire another full-time officer to allow the department to be staffed with two full-time and two part-time officers. In 2011, the borough's budget committee included wages for two additional part-time officers in the 2012 police department budget instead of one full-time officer to save costs associated with benefits, but to date no additional officers have been hired.
Council did not discuss whether it plans to replace Auber at Monday's meeting.
Also discussed last night was the need for a new police vehicle to replace the Ford Explorer council decided to sell for scrap at a previous meeting and reaffirmed Monday.
The police department has indicated they would like council to explore purchasing a new vehicle, possibly a four-wheel-drive pick-up truck that would allow large or heavy pieces of evidence to be hauled.
Council members, at Monday's meeting, said they would also look at used police vehicles, both certified used and after-market types, before making a decision on what to purchase.
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