Crime & Safety

Local Police Force Comes With $5 Million Price Tag

A report delivered at the Lower Macungie Township Community Center Tuesday night details the pros and cons of maintaining police services through the state police versus creating a local police force.

A consultant hired by Lower Macungie Township to look at crime statistics and police issues in the township says that Lower Mac saves $4 to $5 million a year by not having its own police department.

Gary Cordner, a former police officer and Kutztown University criminal justice professor, presented the results of his study to a group of residents and government officials assembled at the township community center Tuesday night. Cordner conducted the investigation along with his wife AnnMarie, who is also a professor at Kutztown.

Cordner’s research compares the 37 largest townships in the commonwealth (based on population) on a variety of factors including type of police force, number of officers, type and rate of crime. (Lower Macungie Township is the 22nd-largest township in the state.)

In the end, Cordner says, the effort led him to several distinct conclusions. 

  • Having no police force of its own makes Lower Macungie unusual among the municipalities Cordner studied. This is neither good nor bad, Cordner stresses, merely different.
  • The township has a low crime rate, but it is increasing.
  • More than 80 percent of Lower Macungie’s major crimes are thefts and 97 percent are property crimes.
  • Major crimes in the township are solved by the state police at a comparable rate to similar jurisdictions.
  • Lower Macungie saves $4 to $5 million annually by not having its own police department. Cordner says that when a municipality decides to create a police department, it can anticipate spending 30 to 40 percent of its municipal budget on police. “It immediately becomes one of the most expensive parts of the operation,” he said. 

Cordner, who is mayor of Macungie, will present his final report  to the township Board of Commissioners at the end of December. Based on a question raised Tuesday about how Lower Macungie compares to municipalities with no high school or downtown, Cordner will try to add insights on crime with respect to population density to that report.

He said that unless he uncovers something monumental between now and then, he expects his final report to be quite similar to what he presented to residents Tuesday.

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