One-Man Jenkintown Police Patrols: Penny-Wise, Pound-Dangerous

Jenkintown’s safety demands a fully staffed police force

When is the last time you’ve been to the beach and observed just one lifeguard sitting in the lifeguard stand for any length of time? When is the last time an ambulance showed up to a call and only one EMT popped out? Among the first-responder professions, staffing is based on situations, hazards, or emergencies that could potentially arise, not the frequency in which they might. Suburban policing should be no exception.

At the community meetings held earlier this year, Jenkintown’s new police chief, Thomas Scott, suggested that one-man patrols or one-man squads would be something to consider for Jenkintown. He claims we don’t need two man shifts because crime is down. Maybe crime is down because we have two man shifts. If it ain’t broke, what, exactly is he trying to fix?

The Impact to Borough Safety

To get a better understanding, let’s consider the impact to the borough and our safety should this idea ever become a reality.

Since its founding, there has never been a time in Jenkintown policing where shifts were considered fully staffed with only one officer. One would think this plays into the rapid police response times that residents have grown to rely on — typically under five minutes. 

If Council allows Chief Scott to have his way and staff patrols with only one officer on at a time, logic dictates longer response times. Hypothetically speaking, if you witness or experience criminal activity, do you really want to wait for an officer to clear his medical call before he makes it to you? 

From the criminal’s point of view, more cops mean less opportunity. Two squad cars means more of a deterrent effect, especially overnight while you sleep and the criminal doesn’t. For instance, urban areas have seen a dramatic rise in the theft of catalytic converters, which almost always happens at night and typically takes less than a minute. If you own one of the targeted vehicles, like a Prius, the cost to replace the converter and repair the damage exceeds $1000. 

If one-man squads are something we’ve never done before, why start now with crime everywhere obviously on the rise? We’ve now signaled to the region that Jenkintown officials consider its entire force expendable. What happens when criminals find out we only have one officer serving and protecting at a time?

Impact to Officer Safety and Their Families

Let’s look at this from an officer safety perspective. Data put out by the FBI in a press release dated May of 2024 regarding its “Officers Killed and Assaulted in the Line of Duty, 2023 Special Report” states the following:

• “…from 2021 to 2023, more officers were feloniously killed (194) than in any other consecutive three-year period in the past 20 years (73 officers in 2021, 61 officers in 2022, and 60 officers in 2023).
• While there has been a slow decline of officers feloniously killed in the line of duty over the past three years, the data shows the rate of officers assaulted has increased each of the past three years. 
• Agencies reported 79,091 officers were assaulted in 2023, marking the highest officer assault rate in the past 10 years. Most officer assaults occurred when responding to simple assaults against a non-officer (6,783 incidents), followed by drug/narcotic violations (4,879). 
• The number of officers assaulted and injured by firearms has climbed over the years, reaching a 10-year high in 2023 with approximately 466 officers assaulted and injured by firearms.”

Data provided by the FBI Uniform Crime Report states that in 2022 62.2 percent of the officers who were assaulted were assigned to 1-officer vehicle patrols, while 14.8 percent of the officers who were assaulted were assigned to 2-officer vehicle patrols. 

Aside from the numbers, how will any of our officers feel safe leaving their families each day, to come protect ours, knowing they must do it alone? Why should an officer have to potentially pull over a car on Old York Road with three, four, or five occupants alone? Why should an officer respond to an emotionally charged domestic call alone? It takes ONE SECOND for things to go wrong, lethal even. 

Consider this: Should Jenkintown drop to one-man squads, who provides back-up? We know that Cheltenham and Abington won’t provide full police services to Jenkintown, but are they capable of providing timely back-up? 

Should a JPD officer pull over “the wrong car,” how long would an officer have to wait before back-up arrives? Would he even have time to call out on the radio before things took a wrong turn? What happens if he doesn’t? Does he have to rely on a civilian observer to call for aid for him?

Impact to Department Morale and Leadership

We must stop pretending that Jenkintown is a bubble, immune from the potential dangers other communities are facing. Thinking “that would never happen in Jenkintown,” no longer applies. With a major traffic artery in and out of Philadelphia cutting through our town, it’s no secret that many crimes in Jenkintown are often committed by non-residents. If we hope to uphold Jenkintown’s reputation as safe place to live, work, and go to school, we need all the protection we can get. We all know what happens to cities and towns that suffer even the perception of increased criminal activity. It often marks the start of their decline.

We often see Abington police bringing multiple patrol cars at traffic stops or responding to calls. Does Chief Scott expect his officers to take on a burden he never had to? How does a man so focused on dismantling this department piece by piece, be trusted to lead his men, be trusted by his men, or be trusted by the community he’s charged with protecting? One’s gotta ask… what’s in it for him?

With both Abington and Cheltenham advertising open police positions in recent months, does that mean they can’t meet their own community needs? 

While the Borough has been silent on police matters as of recent, we know that ridding Jenkintown of its own police force isn’t off the table yet. We encourage all residents to continue to reach out to your ward reps and demand we keep the JPD and we keep more than one officer on at a time. 

We cannot afford to gamble with the safety of each other and our officers, not to mention our reputation and property values. It’s a service that we pay for, and one that we want available to us when the time comes.