Jenkintown Police and Borough Solvency: A Better Approach

I. Introduction

We, the members of Jenkintown Matters, present this document in response to the efforts of Jenkintown’s administration to dissolve the Jenkintown Police Department (JPD) and outsource policing services to a neighboring municipality, particularly Abington Township.¹ As part of these efforts, the administration recently voted to ask a state agency biased towards regionalization to perform a cost-benefit analysis on all of Jenkintown’s public safety services.²

Our research has documented that the administration began discussions about the department’s dissolution during the spring of 2023. In July 2023, the Jenkintown Borough Council met with Bellevue Communications, a public relations firm. On July 26th, without public deliberation or explanation of this agreement, Council voted unanimously and without public disclosure to contract with Bellevue to help the administration plan its response to the expected public reaction to the news of its plans to dissolve the JPD.

Information obtained from a Right to Know request shows that two days after the Bellevue contract was approved, George Locke, Borough Manager, discussed the possibility of outsourcing Jenkintown’s police service with Abington’s Town Manager, Richard Manfredi.³ 

The timing of this meeting coming nearly two months before the start of its negotiations with the Jenkintown Police Benevolent Association (JPBA) appears designed to give the Borough administration sufficient time to work out a preliminary agreement with Abington Township and to give it leverage over the JPBA. As we have documented, Abington’s leadership have shown no interest in the proposal.⁴

When local media reported the existence of the Bellevue contract in early February of 2024, the administration was forced to hold two public meetings to defend its actions. It additionally held a restricted and questionably legal third meeting with residents of the Beaver Hill condominiums. Members of the administration also met privately with some concerned citizens. 

During these meetings, the administration attempted to make its case that: 

1. The JPD is financially unsustainable, and
2. JPD officers are ineffective and ethically compromised.

This response intends to dispute both of these allegations.

Find the full analysis in this PDF.