Police mutual aid to Fawn will hinge on whether a police officer is on duty in the township.
The chiefs of some neighboring departments said they will respond to assist an on-duty Fawn officer or to a state trooper answering a call there.
But they said their departments will not serve as surrogates when Fawn doesn't have an officer working.
“It's about providing assistance for law enforcement,” said Harrison Police Chief Mike Klein. “This is about mutual aid to law enforcement who request it.
“That's in line with what everybody understands: You don't go out there unless there is an officer out there,” Klein said of his officers.
Fawn, which had 24-hour police coverage until last May, does not have one of its own officers patrolling the township for eight shifts per week.
Those shifts are now covered by state police dispatched from East Franklin, about 19 miles from the township building.
That happened last May after one part-time officer resigned and the supervisors reduced the hours for part-time officers in June, knocking two of them off the schedule.
David Montanari, chairman of the Fawn supervisors, said that happened after the supervisors reviewed the police call history in the rural township and found out that calls for service average one every 31 hours.
He said the Allegheny County 911 records showed one period when 85 hours — 3 1⁄2 days — lapsed between calls.
Montanari said it made the supervisors reconsider if the township should cut back on paying for local police service it did not use or need.
Fawn's real estate tax rate is 3 mills and its total budget is about $700,000. Of that, about $280,000 pays for police operations.
“We had call history that did not suit what we were aiming for,” Montanari said.
How Fawn is covered
The result is Fawn now has two full-time officers, including Chief Tim Mayberry, and one part-timer, but they can't cover all the shifts.
There is no charge for state police coverage. They are required by law to provide police services to municipalities without a police department.
Troopers from East Franklin patrol most of Armstrong County, limited parts of Allegheny and Butler counties and Route 28 all the way to the Pittsburgh city limits.
At the supervisors' December meeting, the wisdom of all that was questioned by a resident upset because a Fawn police officer wasn't working when she suspected a prowler at her house. She was shocked by that and had to wait 30 minutes for the state police to respond.
Montanari apparently views the township's police mutual aid agreements as a safety net, particularly regarding the state police.
He said in the possible prowler call, the state police should have called Harrison police and asked for assistance when they realized there would be a delay.
“If we're here, why would we call (another department)?” he said. “If there is a state trooper here, do you really think they are going to call for assistance?”
Mutual aid: How it works
But that's not how mutual aid is supposed to work, according to Dane Merryman, executive director of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association.
“A mutual aid agreement usually means that if my department is tied up with a big incident and can't handle another call, I can ask your department for help,” Merryman said. “It doesn't mean that we have a mutual aid agreement and when my officers go off duty, your department handles the calls.”
“Mutual aid means you back each other up,” he said. “It doesn't mean that you have another department providing basic services because you don't have somebody on duty.”
Tarentum Chief Bill Vakulick was adamant about his department's policy.
“We do not answer Fawn Township calls,” he said. “If there is an officer on duty out there, or if there is a state trooper out there, we will respond.”
“Our policy is if Fawn is on duty and they call us for assistance, we will definitely comply with that,” said Terry Kuhns, Frazer's police chief. “But, like Tarentum and Brackenridge, if nobody from Fawn is on duty we will not respond.”
Montanari's contention
But Montanari said that when the state police are providing coverage and ask for help, the situation isn't the same.
“They are not coming on behalf of Fawn Township,” he said. “They are coming on behalf of the Pennsylvania State Police.”
He compared it to how local departments respond to accidents on Route 28, which is state police jurisdiction, before a trooper arrives at the scene.
“There isn't trooper on scene; what is the difference?” Montanari asked.
The state police's position
Trooper Adam Reed, spokesman for the state police headquarters in Harrisburg, said the agency has no official mutual aid agreements in place with other departments.
“If such a situation would arise that PSP would be delayed in responding to a critical incident in Fawn Township, we would probably request the assistance of a local department,” Reed said. “However, there is nothing I am aware of that would obligate another department to respond. That would be determined based on their manpower and availability at the time.”
Other departments fine as backups
“It's going to be if (state police) are going to have a delayed response or no response,” Harrison's Chief Klein said. “If there is a delayed response, it may be that a neighboring department may respond to ‘hold the fort.' But they are not taking ownership of the call.
“You have to keep in mind, we have our own municipalities to run so I will say, ‘We may (respond),' ” he said. “It depends on the totality of the circumstances.”
“We'll tell state police to call us when they are close,” Kuhns said.
“You can see this is rife with problems,” Kuhns said. “If there is a domestic, do we arrest somebody? I'm not even sure if we have the authority to arrest anybody in that situation.”
Tarentum Borough Manager Bill Rossey said: “It's not covered by our liability insurance. It's a dangerous risk for our officers. They don't know that area; they don't know the people; they don't patrol it every day.”
But in an imminent danger situation, Kuhns is sure how the local departments would react.
“If someone is in danger of death or serious bodily injury, of course we would respond.”
Tom Yerace is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-226-4675 or tyerace@tribweb.com.
