A familiar topic in 2024 is back on the front burner in Lansdale for 2025.
Police Chief Mike Trail gave an update in mid-January on his department’s staffing levels, and a request that could come soon.
“We did have a retirement from the police department. We have one officer in the (police) academy, and for our 2025 budget we actually have one funded position for an officer we have not yet hired. So net, right now, we’re sitting down two,” said Trail.
Last fall during talks on the town’s 2025 budget, Trail gave council an update on his department’s staffing levels, noting how in 2023 the department added four new officers, after lengthy talks in 2022 about increasing the department’s staffing levels to keep up with the population growth of the town and help tackle quality-of-life issues like parking and traffic troubles. Those four hires in 2023 brought the department up to a recent high of 29 officers, the chief told the public safety committee in early September, and in spring council authorized an updated candidate list for new hires due to up to three officers that could leave within the next few months. In mid-September council made offers of employment to two candidates, and in October the chief reported that one had declined, and the other had begun police academy training and was expected to complete training and be on duty by summer 2025.
During his public safety committee report on Jan. 15, Trail gave an update, announcing that Officer George Johnson, a member of the department since 1997, had retired as of the start of the year, leaving another position vacant beyond the vacancy discussed in 2024 that the one candidate declined.
“As a result, I am going to be coming before the public safety committee in February with a request to hire the one officer who remains on our (candidate) list,” he said.
“That individual will need to go to the police academy, which starts in April. If all goes well, that individual would probably be online by the beginning of next year. It takes a long time to hire somebody, get them trained, get them equipped, and get them ready to serve the community,” Trail said.
Co-responder could be renewed
Trail also gave an update on the department’s mental health co-responder, a contracted specialist meant to respond to crisis events alongside officers and link those in need to mental health resources and other services. In the department’s 2025 budget, the chief told council, a grant secured in 2023 to fund the coresponder program will be likely expended in the first or second quarter of the year, and funds needed to maintain the coresponder would need to be been budgeted in following years.
“Some of the money’s going to be from the grant, and the remainder’s going to be from the borough itself. And then in the 2026 budget year, I will come forward with a plan to hire that individual as a permanent borough employee,” he said
Councilman BJ Breish asked if there was any way or reason to convert the coresponder into a borough employee earlier, and Trail said the current timeline was based largely on budget considerations, and the department is “desperately searching” for further grant funds to cover the coresponder, and much work to do before bringing them on as an employee.
“It’s not going to be, just flip a switch and Alexis becomes an employee here. We’ll have to write a job description, working with HR, she would apply for it. Based on the experience and strength of her resume, I feel she’d probably come on top of anybody else who applies — but there is a process,” he said.
Councilwoman Carrie Oglesby then asked where the new hires would bring the staffing levels, and Trail said filling all authorized hires would bring the department back to their authorized strength of 29 officers, “which is our high-water mark.”
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