Feb 7, 2016 3 min read

At a time when one is more likely to read about small communities disbanding their police departments, it was good to hear at least one Greene County municipality is doing just the opposite.

Morris Township, which for the last two-and-a-half years has been contracting police services from other departments, held a brief ceremony last Tuesday to mark the formation of its new police department.

Initially, the department will have only one officer, police Chief Michael Natale. However, Natale spoke about eventually hiring several part-timers to help round out the force. It is now one of four communities in Greene County with its own police force, the others being Waynesburg, Carmichaels and Cumberland Township.

Like many communities in western Greene County, Morris Township has grown over the years – maybe not in terms of population, but in terms of industrial activity. The quiet, rural community has become more bustling because of the boom in natural gas drilling and additional coal mining thanks to Consol’s Bailey Mine complex expanding east into the township.

This has resulted in a substantial increase in truck traffic, and has put the fear in many residents who had long been used to the area’s traditional bucolic calm. The township has also seen a spike in crime, much of which can probably be attributed to the growing drug problem in Greene and the region. Natale noted that “there are some people with sticky fingers because of that.”

Morris Township’s supervisors earlier agreed the township had to act. Though they have tipped their hats to the Pennsylvania State Police for its efforts in the community, the supervisors realized the resources of the state police are also limited.

Beyond the initial start-up costs, the supervisors explained last week, the cost of the department will be similar to what the township had been paying for contracted services from such agencies as the Southwest Regional Police Department and the Donegal Township Police Department, just over the line in Washington County. They plan to fund the majority of the costs with Act 13 impact fee money.

We support the township’s efforts to address the community’s problems in this way. We also believe other municipalities in western Greene County, which face all of the same problems, should consider providing police protection.

It seems to us the easiest way something like that could be accomplished is for the municipalities to join together and create a regional department.

We know it has been talked about in the past, but nothing has been done.

Maybe now that Morris Township has taken a lead, we hope the idea will gain some traction.