May 16, 2016 3 min read

The Pennsylvania State Police was the first statewide law-enforcement agency in the country when it was hatched over a century ago, with its initial tasks centering on keeping the peace in the steel mills and coal mines that dotted the commonwealth and were occasionally sources of chaos and violence.

The duties of the state police have changed markedly since the dawn of the 20th century, as it now provides protection not just at hotspots where disputes between labor and management might flare. It patrols all federal and state highways across the commonwealth, oversees automobile inspections, enforces the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code and enforces regulations on commercial vehicles.

It also is the sole source of police protection for 85 percent of the commonwealth’s territory, and a little more than a quarter of its population – something that it is doing even as its ranks thin and lawmakers dip into a fund earmarked for roads to keep the state police in the black. It’s a situation that cannot be sustained.

First, there are more state policemen looking to retire than there are recruits to replace them. Of 4,500 officers, a little more than 1,000 are on the cusp of retirement, and an additional 1,000 or so will be eligible to retire by 2020. As of last fall, the state police were short more than 300 troopers.

And then state police are being asked to provide coverage for more and more of the state, as some smaller municipalities plead poverty, disband their police forces and look to the state police to fill the void. All told, 1,287 of Pennsylvania’s 2,561 municipalities are receiving all of their protection from the state police, and that includes some in Washington and Greene counties. Additional municipalities rely on the state police on a part-time basis. This helps the budgets of these municipalities, no doubt about it – they are still able to collect half the take from traffic tickets – but it is doing a disservice to the rest of the commonwealth’s taxpayers. The municipalities do not have to pay any fees for the service while, at the same time, money is being diverted from the commonwealth’s motor license fund to help pay the state police’s bills. About $500 million goes from that fund each year to pay for the state police, and that number is expected to jump to $800 million by next year.

Pennsylvania is not exactly wanting for bridges that need repair and potholes that need to be filled, and the money that is going to the state police means these overhauls are being put off to some other day, or some other year.

Leslie Richards, Pennsylvania’s transportation secretary, told the Associated Press in March that “people are shocked” when they find that money that is supposed to be for roads is instead going to the state police.

There is a potential solution, however, that lawmakers should seriously consider.

State Rep. Michael Sturla, a Democrat from Lancaster County, has periodically pushed a measure over the last three years or so that would have municipalities who look to the state police for coverage pay an annual fee of $156 per capita if they receive full-time service, and $52 per capita for part-time service. This would not only be a step toward greater fairness, it would also potentially be a spur for these communities to form regional forces or keep their police departments intact.

Maintaining our infrastructure is critical to Pennsylvania’s well-being, and public safety is a cardinal function of government. Neither is a freebie. Municipalities that receive protection from the state police should help pay for it.