Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Police chief moving on after 29 years
Accepted top police job in Perksasie
NORTH COVENTRY » After nearly 30 years with the township police department, Chief Robert Schurr had every expectation that he would end his police career here.
Then came that once-ina-lifetime opportunity — a vacancy in the police chief’s chair in the Bucks County borough of Perkasie, which also provides police services to Sellersville, where he grew up.
“I knew if I didn’t take a shot, I would always wonder ‘what-if?” Schurr said during a recent interview in his now-nearly barren office on South Hanover Street.
Schurr, who lives in New Hanover, still has family that live just outside Perkasie.
The job offered the ability to help his sister care for their aging mother, coupled with “being able to do police work where I grew up.”
When he was chosen from among 47 applicants for the job, he couldn’t say no.
But it has been hard to say goodbye to the people he has worked with, and for, over the last 29 years and four months.
“I had always planned to retire here. It’s a great department, the staff is great,” said Schurr.
He said he learned from his mentor and predecessor, former chief Mike Benyo, to treat people, suspects included, “like you would want to be treated, or want someone from your family to be treated.”
“We’ve had people we arrested tell us, ‘thank you for treating me as a person,” Schurr said.
That doesn’t mean the work can’t be dangerous, and he learned that early on.
In Feburary of 1991, just three months after Schurr joined the North Coventry department, fellow officer Dave Sassa was shot in the jaw during a car chase on Route 422.
“It was a vehicle pursuit and Dave was set up at the road block and the suspect leaned out of the car with a 30/30 rifle and shot him through the back window of his patrol car,” Schurr recalled. “It was an eye-opening experience.”
Sass recovered and has since gone on to become the chief of Chester County detectives, and a good friend, Schurr said.
Sassa and Benyo taught Schurr a lot, he said — the kind of things he did not learn at either the Montgomery County Police Academy, or its counterpart in Cape May County, N.J., where he attended after being hired part-time in the seaside community of Avalon.
He was only there a few months before he got the offer for full-time work in North Coventry.
Benyo taught him by example with his “strong lead
ership style,” Schurr said.
“And he always stressed the important of family. When I was scheduled to work holidays, if it was slow he would always tell me to go home and be with my family,” Schurr said.
That family includes two sons, ages 22 and 24, and his wife, to whom he has been married since 1992.
Both Schurr and Benyo were longtime chiefs. “North Coventry has only had two police chiefs since 1988,” Schurr observed with a chuckle.
The department’s next chief seems likely to be Officer Matthew Deichert.
Schurr said the township decided against looking outside the department for his replacement.
Deichert, a “master patrol officer” who has been with the department for 20 years, was recently named “officerin-charge,” from among six internal applicants.
“Everyone likes Matt and thinks he’s very capable,” said Schurr.
As he reflected on his time in North Coventry, Schurr said he is taken by how much has changed, and how much is still the same.
“A lot of how we do policing hasn’t changed. There are certain procedures which always need to be followed,” said Schurr.
For example, he recalled the robbery of the Gresh family, that owned “the old Coventry diner,” a crime that went wrong on several levels.
While the crime was occurring, Sassa had responded to a suspicious vehicle call and ended up stopping the “getaway car,” which gave police a jump on the identity of the thieves when the robbery was discovered.
Deprived of their getaway vehicle, the thieves stole the Gresh family’s Mercedes and fled to Wildwood, N.J.
But there they were involved in a hit and run. Seeing as the Mercedes had already been listed as a stolen car, it didn’t take long for the criminals to be apprehended.
But some things have certainly changed over 30 years.
For one, when Schurr started the North Coventry Police Department had seven officers. It now has 15.
“But I think technology has been the biggest change,” said Schurr.
“When I started, you had a radio and shotgun in the car and whatever you carried on your gun belt. Now you’ve got cameras, smartphones, computers and even printers in the car,” he said.
And the advent of the Internet, and the department’s “Crimewatch” web page, has made a huge change.
It lists recent arrests, security videos of crimes and, particularly, “most wanted” suspects.
“I’ve been really amazed at how much the community is invested in helping us find suspects,” said Schurr.
The science of forensics has also advanced in the last 30 years.
It was helpful in solving the 2013 murder of 17-yearold Kevin Allen, which Schurr described as “a real whodunit.”
Shakeem Lavar Carter was sentenced to life in prison for the crime, which Schurr said was solved “in about a week” with the help of DNA evidence.
Other memories which surfaced for Schurr included the discovery of skeletal remains in the Schuylkill River while the Norco Fire Company Fair was going on, and the river flooding of South Pottstown.
Schurr’s last day is March 13, and he is not giving himself much of a respite. He starts the new job on March 16.
“I’ll really miss being here,” Schurr concluded. “This is such a great community.”