Beaver Valley Regional Police Department approved, will combine forces of three communities

BADEN – After decades of attempting to form a regional department in the county, three Beaver County communities will be making history with the area's first regionalized police force.

Members of Baden, Freedom and Conway's councils have voted to approve the formation of the Beaver Valley Regional Police Department, creating the first regional police department in Beaver County. The new force will combine the Conway-Freedom Police Department and the Baden Police Department, with leadership given to a board of council members from the three communities served by the police officers.

"As we're starting this process, the residents can rest assured nothing is really going to change in patrolling," said Baden Councilman Michael Stuban. "We're still going to have officers in town and we're still going to maintain and use our police station."

Baden made the regionalization official on Wednesday night when the borough council passed Resolution 23-01, which will dissolve the Baden Borough Police Department once operations officially start at the Beaver Valley Regional Police Department. Officials estimate that the regional police department could begin operations as soon as April, but any unforeseen delays could change that window to June.

The vote for regionalization in Baden passed with a five-to-one vote, as one member was not present. Baden's council has temporarily appointed Mayor Judi Montell, council Vice President John Shelkons and Stuban to the regional department's leadership committee. According to Stuban, another vote will take place next month to allow council members more input in the process.

"The regional committee itself will consist of two members from Freedom, two members from Conway and two members from Baden," Stuban said. "But the seventh member, Baden gets that spot this year. That's why we will have three, we will rotate each year: one year Conway will get one, the next year Baden, then back to Conway."

In Conway, the regionalization passed with a unanimous vote from the borough's council. Representation for the inaugural year of the Beaver Valley Regional Police Department will include Mayor Debbie Rose and council Vice President Scott Levenson.

"I think that from our perspective and council's perspective, we're very excited," Rose said. "To be a police officer in this day and age is not easy. People are not going through the academy, so I think this will help in terms of filling the police officers for our communities and keeping the talent that we have."

Freedom's borough council remained split on the issue of regionalization, but Stuban said that the decision was made to move forward with regionalization when the three-to-three vote was broken by Mayor Nadine Padezanin.

Padezanin was unable to offer a comment on the regionalization decision or name who will sit on the regionalization board on Thursday morning, but will provide The Times with these details soon.

Now that the department has been approved and its leadership is beginning to gather, the next step will be establishing some of the basics for this new department. From police policies to badge designs, the three communities will begin shaping the new force using the familiar elements of the two local police departments.

"Our next step is that we are pulling together the policies and the procedures to merge them, see what equipment we have, decide on the officers and organization, when we're going to have the regular meetings," Stuban said. "We also have to design new police patches, logos for the car, order letterhead and get everything ready for the consolidation and the beginning of the department."

Operations for the regional department will be centered out of the Conway Police Department, with the Baden Police Department serving as a substation for officers to use. The regional force is expected to be composed of many of the current full-time officers already serving the Conway-Freedom and Baden departments' coverage areas, which will allow those familiar with the area to begin more specialized training and ease the burden on finding new officers.

"Hopefully, this department will be able to specialize in different things because it's going to have more training opportunities," Rose said. "We could have somebody specifically for drugs, a detective or vehicle accident recreation. I believe the training and recruiting people will be a great tool for the department."

As the department grows, other local communities may also be invited to join the Beaver Valley Regional Police Department. In previous public statements, areas such as Rochester Township were named as potential communities they could see joining the regionalization process.

The regionalization process has been contested for years within Beaver County, but county officials note that the need to combine police forces continues to grow as less police officers are seeking employment in the area. With a larger police force like the Beaver Valley Regional Police Department, police officers can be trained to the increased expectations of the position in today's society.

"The smallest departments don't have the time or the manpower to provide supervision for officers on the shift or for new officers," said Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier. "The state says that you need at least 10 police officers to be a viable police department, and that's probably closer to the truth. I think regionalization provides our small communities an opportunity to go together and to develop larger police departments in which they all have a vote and control on a board, rather than contract with larger departments where they lose authority control and responsibility."

Lozier said that at least a dozen municipalities in Beaver County have shown interest in the regionalization process for their communities. The choice to regionalize is the responsibility of the elected officials in these boroughs, but Lozier said he and Andy Gall, chief of detectives for the county, will continue to offer information and provide options to those wanting to reassess their local policing structure.

Officials are also beginning to look at similar processes to form regional fire departments, as many departments across the county are suffering from a lack of volunteers and funding. By pooling resources similar to a regional police department, the community's firefighters can be better equipped to help in emergency situations.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Beaver Valley Regional Police Department approved by three communities