Minersville says it won’t respond to 9-1-1 calls from Cass Township after its neighbor voted in May to disband the local police force.
During a Borough Council work session meeting on Tuesday, Councilman Terry Raffety said Minersville police officers will only respond to 9-1-1 calls originating from Cass Township under specific circumstances.
“The only instance that we might respond would be if we get a call for from the State Police to back them up for some reason,” Raffety said. “Other than that, we are not going into Cass Township.”
When Cass Twp. voted to disband its own police force, supervisors there said they’d rely on Pennsylvania State Police-Frackville barracks to provide coverage locally.
At last week’s monthly meeting, Cass supervisors were telling residents about their experience so far with State Police coverage, boasting that they’ve responded to several non-urgent calls in less than an hour.
However, on Tuesday, Minersville Police Chief Jeff Bowers said that there are times when State Police can’t respond and tell 9-1-1 dispatchers to request his officers to cover the Cass Township calls.
“I went as far as sending the 9-1-1 center a memo notifying them,” Bowers said.
He said it happened several times a week, at least, that State Police would have dispatchers check to see if Minersville Police could cover calls in Cass Township.
Now, Bowers said that Minersville will only respond to Cass Township if State Police are already on the scene of a call there or if there’s an urgent emergency.
He said he’s not going to allow Cass supervisors to backdoor their way into getting police coverage without paying for it.
“If they don’t pay for a police department, they’re not going to get it from us for free,” Bowers said.
COMING SOON: Cass Township previously turned down an offer from Minersville to provide 24/7 police coverage. We’ll dig into that in a future report.
BACKSTORY: Here’s our full coverage of the Cass Township decision to disband its police department …
- Cass Township Solicitor Refuses To Answer Questions On Where Missing Money In Evidence Room Was Found
- Cass Supervisors Bad-Mouth Police Dept. They Disbanded In May
- DA: $575 From Cass Township Police Evidence Room Found On Tuesday
- Cass Township Police Disbandment Leads To Evidence Room Dispute
- Cass Township Disbands Its Police Force
- Cass Twp. Suspends Police Operations Pending Investigation
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