Sep 17, 2013 2 min read

A few borough of Canonsburg residents complained at Monday’s council meeting about a lack of police presence in the borough’s East End and south side.

Resident Matt Shirer said he has noticed drug activity at a home in his East End neighborhood and told council he believes police aren’t “on top of it.”

Shirer said that he talked with borough officials for about a year about several issues, including drug use in the neighborhood and is “at his wit’s end.”

Another resident, Carol Hayman, told council she would like police officers to patrol her south side neighborhood because of what she described as drug activity. She said she also would like increased police visibility when school is letting out at South Central Elementary School and buses are traveling through town.

On Tuesday, Canonsburg Police Chief R.T. Bell responded to their comments.

“We take seriously every call we get regarding suspected drug activity. We are on top of drug arrests as much as we can be for a police department our size,” said Bell. “We are very aggressive about it. But drug investigations can take time, sometimes between six months to a year.”

Bell said the borough works with organizations including the Washington County district attorney’s Drug Task Force and the Drug Enforcement Agency, and has reduced drug crime.

Mayor David Rhome said police patrol 4,000 miles of road every month and respond to six hundred 911 phone calls each month.

The police department has 15 full-time officers and three part-time officers.

Bell said police still perform foot patrol through the streets and district schools and, as part of a meet-and-greet program implemented at the beginning of the year, introduce themselves during patrols to residents and business owners.

Det. Sgt. Alexander Coghill said the department has been working diligently to solve burglaries and other drug-related crimes.

“From a citizen’s perspective, it can seem like there inactivity on our part. But we’re addressing it, we have been addressing it and we will continue to respond as things develop,” said Coghill.