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Cheswick Votes To Disband Police Department

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- In a meeting that lasted less three minutes Thursday evening, the Borough Council in Cheswick voted unanimously to abolish its existing police department of six part-time officers and merge with adjacent Springdale Township which has four part-time officers and two full-time officers.

"In Cheswick, we rely almost entirely on part-time officers," said Cheswick Councilman Michael Girardi. "If anybody has been paying attention recently, it's becoming more and more difficult to find part-timers. By merging, we have an opportunity to have full timers and have more training for part-timers that we do have."

Another reason for the police merge consolidation is cost savings. The two communities combine will save about $200,000.

Not everyone in believes the merger is a good idea. Dan Carroll has been Cheswick Mayor for more than 12 years.

"I don't think we should just be considering cash and money as the main reasons for doing things like this," he said. "We're going to have a lot more territory and a merger will effectively dilute our coverage."

No word on when Springdale will okay the merger, but officials hope the new regional police force will be operational by July 1.

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