Whitpain designated as county booking center

Montgomery County leaders gave the all-clear to allow the Whitpain Township Police Department to become a county booking center.

Solicitor Josh Stein relayed that the Montgomery County Commissioners initially established a countywide booking center plan in 2009 after learning of a Pennsylvania General Assembly mandate. He added that booking centers serve as places where “individuals” are “processed” “following [an] arrest.”

The state’s third most populous county identified 13 booking locations, according to the resolution.

More than a decade later, the Whitpain Township Police Department at 960 Wentz Road in Blue Bell, “has obtained all the requisite equipment,” and “acknowledge[d] that it shall fully comply with the terms of the countywide booking center plan,” the resolution states.

Additionally, the municipal law enforcement agency would need to assume fiscal responsibility “for the annual equipment maintenance fee.”

The area’s criminal justice advisory board endorsed the initiative after going over the proposal, Stein said.

“By adding Whitpain Township Police Department to the booking center community that would relieve further strain from the Montgomery County Correctional Facility…,” Stein said.

Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Valerie Arkoosh moved to approve the resolution, which Vice Chairman Ken Lawrence, Jr. seconded. The vote was unanimous.