Nazareth's New Police Committee Considering All Options

Nazareth’s Police Committee met Monday night for the first time since Mayor Fred Daugherty Jr. to buy police coverage from . In regards to future, committee chairman Jack Herbst said they are "looking at all options."

Monday was also a first for the reorganized committee. During Nazareth Borough Council's Jan. 3, it was announced that Councilman Jack Herbst would replace Vice President Larry Stoudt as chairman, and the Rev. William Matz and Charles Donello would round out the rest of the committee.

The new committee members wasted no time filling two hours with several topics devoted to Nazareth's fledgling police department.

Monday’s meeting initially started out much like the meetings in 2011. Police Chief Thomas Trachta asked if the borough talked with neighboring municipalities about merging departments -- the answer was “no” -- and requested permission to hire four part-time officers.

Council of two part-time officers in July, but only one was hired. In September, was approved but, again, only one was hired.

Part-time officers aren’t Trachta’s first choice, however.

“This police department needs at least six full-time officers,” he said. “We need to stop relying on part-timers and state police.”

When asked when he could start the hiring process, Herbst said, “Not at this time.”

Donello wondered why the subject of hiring full-time officers remained a stalemate.

“I know I’m new to the Police Committee, but I don’t understand why we’re hesitating on this so much,” he said. “If we get one full-time [officer] and two part-time [officers], that’s not asking for too much. We only have three full-time officers and one is out [on workers’ compensation]. There’s no one there for backup at night.”

Herbst had an easy answer for Donello: The money needed to hire a full-time officer was not included in the 2012 budget.

“We’re talking about $100,000, including benefits, to hire one full-time officer,” Herbst said.

Donello noted that he understood a full-time officer wasn’t budgeted, “but it’s something we should really consider looking into.”

As for the future of the Nazareth Borough Police Department -- it’s still up in the air.

“This is a brand new Police Committee, so we have to start from scratch,” Herbst said. “We’re all just getting our feet wet at this point.”

Although the future remains uncertain, Herbst said the Police Committee is looking at all options, including the possibility of raising taxes in order to rebuild the department and hire additional full-time officers.

“That’s one of the options we’re looking at,” he said. “Until we get closer to an answer, there’s not much we can do."

Meanwhile, the new committee did approve the purchase of a $220 breaching ram, which is used to force open closed or locked doors. Trachta said his officers recently had to borrow Tatamy’s breaching ram in order to execute a search warrant on a meth lab.

The purchase of two PROTECH ballistic shields has been put on hold. There are two sizes, the smaller costing around $1,800.

“The smaller shield would probably fit better in the cars, but if you’re in a bad situation you’re going to want more cover,” Trachta explained.

Finally, Trachta asked if he could purchase new uniforms for officers who have worked for the borough for three years. Since part-time officers receive only two uniforms -- instead of five like the full-time officers -- the uniforms get “ratty” around the three-year mark.

Herbst advised Trachta to find out what each officer exactly needs, then bring the list to the Police Committee for approval.