SCRANTON TIMES-LEADER EDITORIAL: A new state legislative report makes such a strong case for forming regional police departments that it overwhelms the only real opposition to them.
The study by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee illustrates that Pennsylvania’s fragmented local governance is obsolete and unsustainable. Local governments with police forces (not counting Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) spent more than $1.3 billion on them in the 2012-2013 fiscal year. And state police spent more than $540 million to cover 1,700 municipalities that do not have departments because they can’t afford them.
Most of the more than 1,000 local departments are tiny. The patchwork ensures a wide array of training, procedures and effectiveness, along with parochialism that works against political independence and professionalism… (more)
