What We Know As Of November, 2024

The latest round up of events in the borough related to the JPD and Jenkintown Borough Council.

At the August Borough Council meeting, Council President Conners reduced individual public comment time from three minutes to two, with a threat that he could make it 30 seconds if he wanted to. However, this restriction seems to have been lifted at the October Borough council meeting.

Per Borough Manager Locke, the DCED reached out to him in February 2024 after reading the publicity surrounding the discovery of the Bellevue contract and the Borough’s intention to dissolve the Police Department.

In May, Jenkintown’s new Parking Enforcement Officers began issuing tickets for violations which haven’t been cited in years, if ever. Rather than communicating the new policy to the community, the PEOs immediately went to work carrying it out with ham-fisted efficiency. Many of those tickets were eventually forgiven but not without impact to Borough revenue and resident trust in leadership.

Council is planning on implementing service with ParkMobile, and existing meters will be removed and replaced with kiosks. As a result, the cost of parking in Jenkintown has doubled. According to the contract attached to the October agenda, the Borough intends to spend $33,000+ over the next three years on new parking kiosks, which incidentally accept coins.

Glenside also has ParkMobile. Judging by the complaints on the Glenside & Wyncote Community Facebook page, not many are happy with it.

Chief Scott has stated at every meeting for the past few months that the DCED/GCLGS report in connection with the Letter of Intent requesting a “cost benefit analysis” of the Police Department should be finished soon, but it has yet to appear, nor have any community meetings been held although Council assured residents that they would take place.

On September 12, 2024, the members of the Jenkintown Police Benevolent Association officially voted unanimously “No Confidence” in the leadership ability and performance of Chief Scott. On September 25, 2024 a letter was sent to all members of Borough Council advising of the vote of no confidence. None of the 12 Council members even had the courtesy to acknowledge receipt of the letter.

On October 1, 2024, Chief Scott implemented one-man patrols for certain shifts. No notice was given to the community.

In an October 16, 2024 interview with WHYY, President Conners stated unequivocally “We have every intention of moving forward with dissolving our police department and contracting with another department. Who that department is? I don’t know. When it all will happen? I can’t even say that — but that is our intention.”

At the October 22, 2024 Council meeting, after several residents voiced opposition to the scheduled vote of support for Chief Scott, President Conners moved the motion up the agenda, and with TV cameras present, it was addressed before all other business. Not surprisingly with this Council, a unanimous vote of confidence was recorded.

Immediately after the October 22 meeting, Chief Scott had what can only be described as a “yelling match” with a meeting attendee in the lobby of Borough Hall. He then returned to meet with Council members behind locked doors. No executive session had been announced at the Council meeting.

After the locked door session, President Conners accosted the same attendee in the lobby asking “Who the fuck are you?”

After negotiations failed, arbitration was scheduled for August. However, in July 2024, Chief Scott reported that the arbitration was postponed from August until October. In October, it was revealed that the arbitration was once again postponed until sometime in the spring of 2025, at which time Jenkintown’s police officers will have been working without a contract for 15+ months.