North Braddock votes to approve charter agreement for regional police force
NORTH BRADDOCK, Pa. (KDKA) — North Braddock Council approved the charter agreement for the Eastern Regional Mon Valley Police Department with East Pittsburgh and Rankin.
"The citizens have told us we need you to make this happen, and I've heard it over and over because what we have is not working," President Lisa Franklin-Robinson said Tuesday.
Mayor Cletus Lee agrees.
"I feel like this is a great step in going in the right direction for the Mon Valley because we don't have a lot of officers," Lee said.
Rankin and East Pittsburgh will vote next month on whether or not to join the regional police force. If things continue to move forward, the force will start in January with 12 full-time and some part-time officers. It is still undecided where the new department will be located.
The next phase means hiring police officers and a chief. Retired police chief Gerald Simpson was hired by the state as a consultant.
"The whole idea behind this is to build the organization to sustain and use the data necessary to put the officers where they need to be during important times of the day," he said.
A nine-member commission will oversee the department.
"We are going to be transparent," Franklin-Robinson said. "We are going to talk about it. We are going to have sessions coming up where the community will come and speak what they want to see."
On July 11, Rankin will vote on the charter. On July 18, East Pittsburgh will vote on the charter.
In the late summer, a town hall meeting will unveil what the regional police department will look like before going operational in January.
