Everson council votes to secure property, records after suspending police force
After voting to suspend the police department last week, Everson Borough Council approved restrictions securing access to property and records in the department Tuesday night.
Council President Jason Frazier said the decision to suspend the department came after the resignation that night of its last remaining member, who had been working four hours a week. Frazier said the department had been down to one officer for the past several months.
“The borough’s citizens have been in favor of a working, active, physical police force,” said council Vice President Hope Peterson. “The struggle has been the fulfillment of the requirements for the force. So it’s not that we didn’t want one. We were unable to fulfill those requirements for the borough.”
Pennsylvania State Police at the Belle Vernon barracks, which had been covering the rest of the week, will handle the additional time.
Tuesday’s vote authorized council to take emergency measures to secure public property — computers, hard drives, phones, and other items from the office — which will be documented and put into storage.
The resolution also allowed the borough to take legal custody of municipal law enforcement records and revoke access credentials for former police personnel, such as a keypad and key fobs.
Police records and assets will be inventoried and stored in the borough building vault. Four Everson officials will be on hand at the same time to box up the items, each sealing the end of a box and recording their initials, Frazier said.
No records can be destroyed for at least three years, Frazier said.
In a year, council will revisit the suspension to see if it should reinstate the department, dissolve it or continue the suspension.
Frazier said that will largely depend on whether anyone shows interest in joining the department.
The borough will maintain its police cars and put them in storage while council waits to reevaluate the situation.
The police department building will be kept vacant in hopes that the borough will be able to restaff it, Frazier said.
The borough is advertising for positions. Frazier hopes to be able to cover 40 hours a week, whether through one person or a combination of people.
“We need more than one person, four hours a week,” he said. “We all want the same thing, whether it’s council or it’s the community. We want the police protection that everyone deserves, not just a couple hours here and a couple hours there.”