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German Township Police Department one year in and keeping busy

By Mike Tony mtony@heraldstandard.Com 3 min read
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Mike Tony | Herald-Standard

German Township Police Officer Hannah Toski and Chief Dave Hromada, Jr. have both gotten positive feedback for doing their jobs recently. Toski saved the life of a McClellandtown man who thanked her for doing so at a Feb. 13 township supervisors meeting, during which the supervisors thanked Hromada and the rest of the department’s members for their service.

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German Township Police Officer Hannah Toski and Chief Dave Hromada, Jr. are two of six active police officers in the township's police department, which is just over a year into service after being rebooted in Jan. 2017 following a nearly 20-year hiatus.

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Mike Tony | Herald-Standard

Members of the German Township Police Department were recognized during a Feb. 13 township supervisors meeting. The department was brought back into existence in Jan. 2017 after a nearly 20-year hiatus.

The German Township Police Department is one year in and a lot busier than expected.

“We just didn’t know how much of a need there was,” Supervisor LC Otto said. “It was a ball that kept rolling.”

The ball started rolling on Jan. 26, 2017, the first day that the department went active, ending nearly two decades of the township going without its own police department.

Since then, the department has responded to more than 1,500 calls for service, executed more than 100 criminal arrests, issued more than 550 citations, and patrolled more than 36,000 miles.

“It’s getting known that we’re here, that if they call, someone’s going to be there fairly quickly,” Chief Dave Hromada Jr. said.

“We’re doing what people said we couldn’t,” Otto said of the township enjoying the benefits of its own police department while still having a balanced budget.

Approximately $140,000 is budgeted for department expenses per year with an estimated income of roughly $40,000 from fines levied, resulting in an annual net cost of $100,000 to the township for its police, Otto added.

Hromada had to create the long dormant department, writing its policy and procedure manuals.

“This year will be a little bit easier budget-wise since we don’t have all the startup expense,” Hromada said. “Now we can concentrate on manpower.”

The department gets 150 hours a week of service out of six active officers, only about 18 hours away from providing 24-hour service, Hromada said. The department’s coverage is still supplemented by state police.

The German Township Police Department was disbanded when the township’s police chief retired in 1998. State police served the township until two years ago, when supervisors contracted with Southwest Regional Police.

Township Supervisor Floyd “Buster” Gladman III has been with the township for 22 years and recalled that the previous chief split time between that role and serving as the township’s secretary/treasurer, adding that the department as currently constructed is a “total 180” from when the department had less manpower.

“(T)hese guys are busting their butts,” Otto said of the department, which the supervisors recognized at their February meeting for its year of service.

One German Township police officer even saved a life last month.

Officer Hannah Toski performed CPR on Mark Upole, 59, of McClellandtown after he suffered cardiac arrest early in the morning of Jan. 28, before emergency medical services responders arrived.

Toski was credited with rescuing Upole from death at the supervisors’ Feb. 13 meeting, and Upole himself attended to thank her.

“That’s why we did this,” Otto said of instituting a township police department.

Hromada said that he would like his department to focus more in the future on community outreach, such as school presentations and Touch-a-Truck, a prospective event during which Otto said police and fire officials may educate young individuals about what they do.

In the meantime, he’s confident that German Township is getting to used to having a police department it can call its own again.

“Initially there was a little bit of resistance,” Hromada said. “Some were skeptical because (a township police department) hadn’t been here for so long. (But) a large part of township is glad that we’re here. Almost all the feedback has been positive.”

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