State Police address Bald Eagle Township over possible Mill Hall Police coverage
By Christopher Miller
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – Bald Eagle Township Supervisors heard from Sgt. Brian Evarts from Pennsylvania State Police Lamar regarding utilizing Mill Hall Borough Police for part-time traffic related police coverage in the township.
“As far as state police go, we provide coverage to the whole county out of the Lamar station,” Sgt. Evarts said. “Those townships that get police coverage from another local department, once they enter into that agreement with another police department, we become a secondary role and Bald Eagle Township would only become a partial coverage zone for PA State Police.”
This means that state police would only cover emergency calls within the township, “and if it is of a non-emergency nature, the incident would be on hold until Mill Hall Borough Police comes back on, and then the calls would kind of stack up,” Evarts explained.
“We are willing to work with the township to cover the problem areas such as Fairpoint and Homestead Estates, or the high school kids trying to beat the buses out of the back parking lots, which when we have the manpower we are willing to do again, but we are willing to work with the township on the problem areas,” Evarts said.
While not trying to disparage any other police department, Sgt. Evarts wanted the township supervisors to know what that means for state police coverage within the township.
“I also read that Mill Hall Borough Police would handle criminal incidents that take place from a traffic stop with the ability to defer that to the state police…we were never brought into that discussion, and it isn’t a regular practice either and we do not handle calls for another jurisdiction, but we will assist when needed,” Evarts added.
Supervisor Steve Tasselli mentioned that the document they were handed from Mill Hall Borough was used and taken from Castanea and Lamar Townships, and they did not seem concerned, “but we are a bit top-ladder here or criminal activity with Walmart and Sheetz and the other businesses here,” Tasselli said.
“I just want to make you all aware and I am more than willing if you have a concern, to talk and give me a call at the barracks; we will do our best to address the problem areas as we can,” Sgt. Evarts said.
“This is disappointing to me as I have been working toward this kind of thing for five years,” Tasselli said, “and we thought we finally had it, but we do not want to deter or detract from what Pennsylvania State Police does.”
The official vote on Mill Hall Borough Police coverage for traffic-related issues in Bald Eagle Township was tabled to discuss it further with the township solicitor Frank Miceli.
