North Franklin won’t contract with Washington for police services
Township supervisors asked to meet with city\'s chief for discussion
North Franklin will not be contracting with the Washington Police Department to have its officers patrol in the township despite a “cordial” meeting on the issue with the city’s police chief earlier this week.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Bob Sabot said some residents have asked township officials on various occasions to consider contracting with a neighboring department nearly eight years after North Franklin disbanded its local police department in favor of state police protection.
That prompted the supervisors to meet Tuesday afternoon with Washington police Chief Steve Devenney, where he laid out a preliminary plan that would cost North Franklin about $700,000 for police services. The plan would require the city’s department to hire an additional four full-time police officers in order to provide 24/7 protection across the township of about 5,000 residents.
Sabot said Devenney’s presentation to the supervisors at the North Franklin Township Building was “extremely professional” and the discussion was “extremely cordial,” but the cost appeared to be a non-starter since it would require the supervisors to raise the township property taxes.
“There’s really no appetite on the board of supervisors at this point,” Sabot said. “We did it because we had some residents who asked us to do it. We are very happy with state police. We get great coverage and we don’t have a lot of crime.”
Sabot said they had briefly considered speaking to another neighboring police department to gauge interest, but it soon became clear that any type of police coverage beyond using state police would be too costly. He said they were not considering contracting with Washington-Greene Regional police, which offers protection in various communities in the region, including nearby Canton Township.
“The board said, ‘OK, we’ll have a discussion with the city of Washington’ because we feel like that would be the best way if we went any way at all,” Sabot said. “After the discussion, we felt there was no path forward. We’re not raising taxes (and) it would take a pretty good tax increase to add (police services) to the mix for a township of 5,000 residents.”
The supervisors voted in December 2018 to disband the township’s police department with four full-time officers and use state police troopers instead. The decision was made to help North Franklin close a projected $850,000 deficit in the 2019 budget by eliminating the $1.2 million allocated to the police department.
Since then, some residents have asked the supervisors to reinstate local police protection or contract with a neighboring community’s department to offer more robust coverage. But Sabot said he and the other supervisors have been pleased with state police’s coverage, noting that crime in the township has not risen since the local police department was disbanded.
“We’ll keep the dialogue open,” Sabot said. “But there is no appetite on the board to move forward and we don’t think it’s necessary.”
Devenney could not be reached for comment Thursday to comment on the aspects of the offer or how far along in the process the discussions had gone.