After two years of work with Palmyra and Annville Township officials, residents of the two municipalities can see the colors of a new regional police force patrolling their streets.
On May 27, The Annville Township and Palmyra Borough Police Departments officially consolidated into the Western Lebanon County Regional Police Department. Officials have said that this is the first regional police force in Lebanon County, serving more than 12,589 residents.
The new force can help address many problems municipal police departments are facing such as a lack of manpower, according to regional Police Chief Andrew Winters.
"By combining the services you are able to get a larger department, (and) you are able to increase your minimal manpower that's on the street," he said. "On top of that, you are increasing your supervision that you're going to have on the street with the officers. You are starting to eliminate some of the redundancy."
The 15-officer force has 11 patrol officers, two sergeants, one detective and one chief of police to start out. The regional force would be headquartered at the Palmyra Borough Municipal Building with two part-time administrative assistants and a substation in Annville Township.
The two municipal departments, along with South Annville Township, began discussions in 2022 about a consolidated police force, asking for a study to be done by the state Department of Community & Economic Development. South Annville Township supervisors decided not to join the proposed department in September 2022.
Palmyra Borough and Annville Township officials finalized the charter agreement to consolidate the police departments in April 2023. The regional department is overseen by a five-member commission. Two representatives from both Palmyra and Annville will be appointed for a three-year term, and one citizen-at-large community member serving a two-year term.
Police departments are constantly running into issues with limited resources and budgets. Winters said.
"When you have more officers, you have the ability to do more things," Winters said about regional police departments. "You can do those speed details, you can put people out on bike, because you have people to address things. It's a little bit easier when you have the bodies."
Some problems the department has had over the first week of service were day-to-day issues, like learning reporting styles and programs. Winters said the biggest headache was getting all the officers logged into the vehicle computers.
"We had a hiccup a day or two where Annville people had to use Annville cars, and vice versa," Winters said. "For all I know it's all fixed ... So it's just little tweaks that need to be done. Nothing major."
Community Policing
Palmyra Borough and Annville Township do not share a border, separated by three townships and having at least 2.7 miles between the border of each municipality. But both municipalities are connected to Route 422. "When you start looking at some of the other townships, their areas are huge and it could take them 15 to 20 minutes to get from one end of their township to another," he said. "I know we can get from (Palmyra) to Annville in less than that."
Most of the time, the department will have at least one officer patrolling Palmyra Borough and at least one officer patrolling Annville Township, with available extra officers floating between the two municipalities. Winters said officers may have some hiccups learning how to deal with their respective new communities, but they should be able to adjust and learn how to work with residents.
"We have a fairly decent mix of (former) Annville and Palmyra officers working at the same time," he said. "So you're going to share the information, and they're going to meet new people. So instead of knowing five cops, now they are going to know 15 cops."
Winters said he'd also like to have community meetings in both municipalities for residents to meet their new officers, with officials looking for other options to connect to the two communities like visiting with schools and local businesses.
"I think they will be surprised with how much we try to connect," he said.
Funding
The regional police department's 2024 budget is more than $3.445 million, with Palmyra Borough contributing $2.142 million and Annville Township contributing $1.3 million.
According to the charter, costs for police services will be apportioned to each participating municipality using a per capita formula.
The per capita rate for 2024 is $273.65. According to census data used to calculate the 2024 regional police budget, Annville Township has a population of 4,759 residents while Palmyra has a population of 7,830 residents.
Winters said the top costs to the department is personnel and benefits, a problem that most police departments are currently facing. But the merger added five Annville Township officers to the 10 Palmyra Borough officers.
"You're looking at over $100,000 to hire one cop, and I got five for $68,000," Winters said. "Right there you are already ahead. You increase some costs in other places, but those costs were going to go up anyway like your health care."
Moving Forward
There are more than 35 regional police departments representing 125 municipalities in the commonwealth, according to thestate Department of Community & Economic Development. In Lebanon County, North Lebanon Township and North Cornwall Township are also in talks about potentially consolidating into one regionalized police force.
"Between manpower and money ... you can only get so far in smaller departments," Winters said. "And if you also look at what are some of the people looking to do. They want to be detectives, they want specialty units (and) they want to be supervisors. If you're in a five-man department, you're probably not going to have a detective and you may only have the chief as your supervisor."
Over the next year officials at the regional department are working on issues including coming in compliance with the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Program, working on crime reduction in the municipalities, getting officers continued training and figuring out the 2025 budget.
"These first six months is just lets get everything working right, let's get everybody on the same page, let's get our policing style the same, let's get the accreditation done and then we'll see where we go from there," Winters said.
While there is potential for the regional department to grow in the future, Winters said the focus right now is just getting the department to continue moving forward.
"If we didn't think we could do it, we wouldn't have done this," he said. "I think you are going to see a better service provided, and I think at some point you are going to see the savings. It might not be in this first six months, and it might not be next year, but I think in the long run you are going to see it."
Residents looking for more information about the Western Lebanon County Regional Police Department can visit their website at lebanon.crimewatchpa.com/wlcrpd.
Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on X at @DAMattToth.Douglas Stump is a correspondent for LDN.
