Earlier this month, new Minersville Police Chief Jeff Bowers drew some criticism for saying that his department would not respond to calls in Cass Township unless it was to provide backup to Pennsylvania State Police on the scene.
That criticism came mostly from comments on a Facebook post from Coal Region Canary that promoted the article that quotes Bowers saying that at a recent Minersville Borough Council meeting.
The main criticism was that Minersville should, because Cass Township is its neighbor, be willing to cover that area if the need arose.
Bowers said what he said because, according to him, what would often happen is that if State Police received a call in Cass Township and they were tied up on other calls, they’d tell Schuylkill County dispatchers to have Minersville Police pick up the call.
That, to Bowers, was essentially giving Cass Township free police coverage.
Now that Cass Township has decided, rather controversially, to disband its police department amid a so-called investigation, Bowers wants to avoid the likely scenario that his department would start receiving more calls to cover incidents in neighboring Cass Township.
In a statement to Coal Region Canary, Bowers clarified his earlier remarks about not giving Cass Township a freebie when it comes to police coverage.
“It is not our intent to place the residents in Cass Township in harm’s way,” Bowers says. “As the Chief of Police in Minersville, my obligation is to the taxpayers of Minersville Borough. It is quite easy to sit back and say, ‘Minersville should just do it to help out.’
“Unfortunately, it is not that easy. Simply sending a police officer into Cass Township to handle a call presents a host of issues.”
Only the police with jurisdiction in that area – in this case, Pennsylvania State Police – can request the services of Minersville.
“Obviously, if the PA State Police requested our assistance, we would have no issue in assisting,” Bowers says.
Bowers added that the Municipal Police Jurisdiction Act does not allow his department to just respond on its own to calls from Cass Township.
Further, Minersville Police have no legal authority in Cass Township. And if officers from Minersville were forced to use any level of force, they could be held liable both criminally and civily.
Also, if a Minersville officer were to get injured responding to a call in Cass Township to which they weren’t legally allowed to be there, any worker’s compensation request could be challenged.
Not Another Freebie
While Minersville is now unwilling to provide what it says would be a free police service to Cass Township, it has in the past done so.
Just in the last four years, there have been two instances in which Cass Township has had a chance to offer residents full-time police coverage or at least have an outside agency look into that possibility through an inter-municipal agreement.
Former Minersville Chief Provided Free Consultation to Cass Township
Back in 2020, then-Minersville Police Chief Michael Combs actually donated his time and services to Cass Township to help get that police department in order.
Combs spent at least four months working to evaluate the state of affairs with the Cass Township Police Dept. as it was assembled at that time.
“It became evident very early in the review that there are severe problems within the department,” Combs wrote in his analysis that was given to Cass Township supervisors at the time.
He wrote that Cass Township supervisors then were “clearly very supportive” of the police department and willing to make whatever changes were necessary to continue providing service there.
Ultimately, this review led to the hire of a new chief, Ger Daley, who held that post until he resigned just before the department was disbanded.
Combs’ chief criticism with the Cass Township Police Dept. back in 2020 was its scheduling.
“The officers work when they want to work and this system causes gaps in coverage at those times when coverage is most needed by the Township,” Combs wrote. “Reviewing the schedules, it is evident officers are stacking shifts during the week and leaving the weekends, especially middle shifts, vacant. This is especially problematic for the Township as they have issues related to off-road vehicles during the weekends.”
Combs also cited a “clear lack of motivation” among the officers in a Cass Township uniform then, noting a lack of citations issued.
That lack of motivation mostly comes from Cass Township having what was essentially a part-time police department filled with part-time officers. Cass Township had seven part-time officers on its roster and five of them had full-time police jobs elsewhere.
In addition to his critical review of what was the Cass Township Police Department at that time, Combs also presented several options for the township going forward.
Some of these options involved new methods of managing the roster of officers to avoid the issues he noted in his review. But they all still relied heavily on part-time officers and that would likely result in the same issues that plagued the department back in 2020.
The fourth option Combs presented was an inter-municipal agreement with Minersville. That option would have provided 24-7 police coverage to Cass Township residents at a cost slightly higher than what the township was already spending for its ineffective department at the time.
At that time, Minersville offered to provide Cass Township round-the-clock coverage for a cost of $113,000 for a one-year trial. Cass had budgeted $91,000 for the year, according to Combs.
After the proposed trial period ended, Combs said Minersville and Cass Township could have entered into negotiations for the same coverage going forward.
But Cass Township never really followed any of Combs’ four suggestions, including the recommended option of contracting with Minersville for full-time coverage.
Ignored Free Help from the State
In addition to never following through with Minersville’s offer in 2020 to contract its police force to provide full-time coverage, Cass Township also never followed through on an offer from the state to do a review of its department that would lead to a recommendation on providing better police coverage for its residents.
Back in 2022, the Dept. of Community and Economic Development Governor’s Center for Local Economic Services was willing to perform an absolutely free assessment of Cass Township and Minersville’s police forces to chart a potential path forward on an inter-municipal agreement between the two.
Minersville officials tell The Canary that the borough did its part, investing time and manpower into gathering the information DCED wanted to perform its assessment.
Cass Township supervisors did agree to participate in the free study but never really went beyond that.
On March 30, 2022, according to an April 2022 letter signed by Cass Township Supervisors Chairwoman Brenda Helt which has been obtained by The Canary, Cass supervisors “took formal action” to “allow a study to be performed by the Department of Community and Economic Development that would provide a cost analysis for regionalizing police services.”
But, according to Minersville officials, that’s the last they heard about it.
Subscribe to Coal Region Canary
Get email updates from Coal Region Canary by becoming a subscriber today. Just enter your email address below to get started!Support Coal Region Canary
Like our reporting and want to support truly local news in Schuylkill County? Your small donations help. For as little as $5, your contribution will allow us to cover more news that directly affects you. Consider donating today by hitting the big yellow button below ...