Another full-time officer added to force

Coatesville City will match grant

COATESVILLE » With help from grant money, Coatesville police have added a full-time officer to help increase their patrol presence.

Coatesville Police Chief John “Jack” Laufer applied for the COPS grant in summer 2017 on behalf of the Coatesville Police Department to fund one police of-

ficer’s full-time position for three years, with a match from Coatesville City. The department received the max amount of $125,000 which offsets benefits, salary and insurance costs. The grant requires that the department continues to employee the hired officer for 12 months following the expiration of the three-year grant, and the city will have to fund the officer’s salary and other costs that year.

Laufer said that the grant, while it won’t cover the all of the costs of a full-time officer, that “every little bit helps.”

Based on the ranking of the departments that applied for the grant, Coatesville ranked first in Pennsylvania and in eighth place nationally. The assessment of the needs for the grant include crime statistics, average household income and other factors. Laufer said the Coatesville Police Department application was based on the need to reduce gun violence in the city through better policing.

“That’s unfortunately what got us qualified,” Laufer said.

There were seven homicides in 2016 and one homicide so far this year in Coatesville. There have been a total of three homicides so far this year in Chester County. Laufer explained that the crime statistics for the application take the population into consideration, and Coatesville is a small city with more than 13,000 residents.

The Coatesville Police Department currently has 29 full-time officers including Laufer and a lieutenant.

“We were excited to receive the grant,” Laufer said. “We hope to try to use that position to reduce gun violence in our community and try to accomplish that through more community policing and increased patrol presence.”

The Coatesville Police Department received the COPS grant previously for community policing efforts. The grant for 2018 will help with staffing levels to have one more officer on the streets, which Laufer said “hopefully contributes to preventing violent crimes, preventing gun crimes, and everything we do, we try to tie back to some form of community policing.” He added that the officers try to handle such problems through community policing efforts to “make a difference in the community.”

The officers are known for walking around the community and interacting with residents as part of their community policing efforts.

Laufer thanked the council members for their support of the grant because of the additional costs to the city to fund the position.

“I think council recognizes the community safety aspect of revitalization,” Laufer said. “How we are going to hopefully turn the city around and revitalize our business community, which is the key, really, to revitalizing the City of Coatesville.”

He said that public safety is a part of revitalizing an area because business owners and patrons want to feel safe.

Visit Daily Local News staff writer Ginger Rae Dunbar’s blog about journalism and volunteering as a firefighter at FirefighterGinger.blogspot.com.

“We hope to try to use that position to reduce gun violence in our community and try to accomplish that through more community policing and increased patrol presence.” — Coatesville Police Chief John “Jack” Laufer

GINGER RAE DUNBAR — DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Coatesville Police Chief John “Jack” Laufer poses at his desk.