(12/10) The Liberty Township Police Department will be providing police services to neighboring Freedom Township beginning in January as a result of an agreement approved by the Liberty Township supervisors at their December 1 meeting.
The Liberty supervisors voted to authorize Chairman Walter Barlow to sign the agreement.
Township Police Chief Sherri Hansen told the board, "We finalized our police coverage (agreement) for Freedom Township." As a result, she said, the township police will be patrolling Freedom for 25-hours per month.
Freedom has agreed to pay Liberty Township $16,500 annually for the service. Liberty police will begin to cover Freedom Township on January 1, according to the agreement.
The supervisors also approved a motion to allow police to exercise officer discretion as to the company employed to tow vehicles that have been involved in accidents, or vehicles that cannot be driven by the driver.
Chief Hansen requested the decision in order to officially reaffirm a policy to which the police department had already been adhering.
The policy covers vehicles involved in a crash, and those who were being driven by someone alleged by police to be driving under the influence, or driving an unregistered vehicle, and/or without required papers.
Chief Hansen said that normally … the first option an officer has is to try and contact a family member or friend to remove an operable vehicle or allow the driver to select a towing company to remove it. If there is no one available to remove a drivable vehicle, police may try to find a safe place to park and lock-it for subsequent removal.
If police have to arrange for the vehicle to be towed, then the officer has the discretion to decide who will tow it. Hansen said their first choices are usually to use B&C or Excalibur. If the vehicle involved is a tractor-trailer or a bus, officers can call any company who can handle these larger types of vehicles.
Liberty Township will be acquiring an additional police vehicle as a result of purchasing a used one from the Gettysburg Police Department.
The township supervisors voted at their December 1 meeting to authorize Chairman Barlow to sign the title to the vehicle once the deal is consummated.
The police vehicle that the Gettysburg department is selling is a used Ford Explorer equipped with a police package. The Explorer has approximately 68,500 miles on it.
Town staff said the township will be receiving the Ford sometime in December.
