New North Wales Borough police officer Haylie Brass, left, poses with a family member after receiving her oath from borough Mayor Neil McDevitt and police Chief Dave Erenius. Photo by Dan Sokil | The Reporter.
Tough competition for candidates, says chief
The newest member of the North Wales Police Department is now on board.
Council members welcomed new officer Haylie Brass to the department on Tuesday night.
“We are very pleased to have you on board. We’re excited about you being here, and I feel you’re a wonderful addition to the force,” said council President Sal Amato.
Brass grew up in Ambler, attended Upper Dublin High School, and later graduated from Gwynedd Mercy University with a degree in criminal justice, then from the Montgomery County police academy, according to police Chief Dave Erenius.
“She served on the Lititz Borough police department, as well as the Montgomery County adult probation parole department. Haylie is currently a fulltime school safety officer for Upper Dublin School District,” Erenius said, adding that in her free time, she enjoys Phillies games, welding, camping, and spending time with her family and with her cat.
Her hiring brings the department up to a total of five full-time and two part-time officers, the chief said afterward, with several part-timers having departed over the past year for other departments, and numerous other departments across the county competing for the same candidates on a list developed by a regional consortium, and some able to offer to cover the costs of police academy training.
“We are going through the consortium list right now, trying to hopefully get a few more part-timers, and maybe even a full-timer, off that list. But the same as the last couple of years, we start with 150 (candidates), we’re down to probably 40, and there’s I don’t know how many jobs open right now in the county. So we’re working on that list,” he said.
Other police-related items discussed by council on Sept. 24 included council approving the 2025 minimum municipal obligation for pension costs, and the chief reported to council that the department is in talks with the North Penn Police Athletic League about a “Shop with a Cop” event near the holidays, to take local kids in need shopping for gifts. Councilwoman Sarah Whelan asked if the department had seen any violations in town from the new “Bus Patrol” video camera system installed on school buses across the North Penn School District, and Erenius said he will report on those stats once officers have completed the training needed to process the cases.
North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Oct. 8 at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street; for more information visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.
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