(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)
(Photo by Sandy Giordano)

Much like the fire departments, the police departments in Beaver County are facing a shortage of personnel in 2022. Factors to why the shortage is happening are numerous–financial issues, political pressure, and extra training among them–and the solution towards it may see consolidation of these departments to create fully-staffed units.

David J. Lozier, the District Attorney for Beaver County, joined Matt Drzik on the February 28 edition of A.M. Beaver County to talk about the plans to regionalize multiple municipalities into several departments throughout the county, so that smaller departments can have an equal role in both patrol and department protocol as opposed to simply being dependent on larger departments. “You create a board,” Lozier said, “and on that board they have votes. So you end up with say, Big Beaver, maintaining control of its police because it is a member on a board…a fixed percentage of their millage goes in to support the police department, but they share control in the region.”

Lozier sees the phenomenon of police shortages that are leading to regionalization as something that will turn around: “I think as we regionalize and as we’re able to increase the salary, benefits and pensions for the full-time officers…and eventually the politics will switch back, and you’ll end up with people supporting the police officers and going back to the academies. Right now, nobody’s going to the academies.”

To see the full interview with DA Lozier, click on the Facebook feed below!