East Pittsburgh’s lesson

The borough disbands a police force it never needed

Last week the borough of East Pittsburgh announced that it will disband its police department and rely on the state police to provide coverage. It should not take a fatal shooting by an officer to bring about such a decision, but in this case it did.

After the June shooting of teenager Antwon Rose II by an East Pittsburgh officer, the department started to lose its employees. Four of the nine officers in the small borough resigned their positions, and borough officials intensified their search for a partner to provide police protection. East Pittsburgh, with a population of only 1,700, realized that it could no longer maintain a quality department on its own.

The end result of that process is the closing of the department on Dec. 1.

During the summer, the borough entered into discussions with neighboring North Braddock and Allegheny County officials about having the county take over the two small police departments. Unfortunately, those talks broke down over the fees that the county would charge the municipalities.

In 2010, then-county Executive Dan Onorato announced a fund to support feasibility studies for shared services. But activity in this area has been fairly quiet since then, except for 911 consolidation.

Any police department that relies on poorly trained, part-time employees can expect rapid turnover and a low degree of professionalism. It can expect error, possibly fatal, tragic error, as in East Pittsburgh.

Citizens have a right to demand something higher and better. Sharing police services only make sense — not only for economies of scale but for the quality of policing.