The date is February, 2104. Quakertown, Pennsylvania. The opening of the time capsule buried 100 years before. Excitement is building! Let's see what our great-great-grandfathers left us as a glimpse of their society.
Wow, what a great collection of old stuff! You don't see much of these anymore. Cell phones bigger than your pinky ring. Computers that require keyboards instead of thought commands. Clothing that doesn't change color and size on demand. Food that contains something called "fat and cholesterol". Medicine to treat diseases long ago eradicated. And what the heck is a "newspaper"? Great Caesar's Ghost!
But what's this? A list of police departments in Upper Bucks. It's an antique all right, but we've got exactly the same list today! There they are, right in black-and-white: Richland, Quakertown. Same in 2104 as 2004.
Sorry, folks, this isn't the Twilight Zone, or a Steven Spielberg sci-fi make-believe. It's actually about as close to reality as we can foresee right now. Our future generations may have nano-technology, smart fibers, and food that will put Dr. Atkins out of business, but one thing you can count on - a regional police force involving Quakertown and Richland will exist only in fantasies.
This isn't because people in both communities don't trust a regional force. They do. And it isn't because they don't hope that it could work. They do. It isn't even because the community leaders don't get along. Believe it or not, they do. But unless there is a major change in human nature, we will always have two forces working side-by-side. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
First off, for the concept to even have a chance, there has to be a window of opportunity on BOTH sides at the same time. The first window opened on the Richland side in 1998, when RT conceived the idea of replacing State Police coverage with something else. It was not written in stone that the something else had to be a separate force. There was serious discussion about joining with the borough, which had a long-established department, or even with Pennridge Regional. In the end, Pennridge was just too far away. And the windowcloser was borough chief James McFadden.
Richland was not about to subject itself to the same problems that Mac had caused on his own force, especially since it appeared that he might be in power for 10 years or more. The decision was made to go it alone, and Stu Woods was hired as chief. Perhaps McFadden resented the new kids on the block, because he refused to cooperate on anything, although the patrolmen frequently did on their own. Big Mac even went so far as to threaten to arrest Woods. Needless to say, relations between the neighboring municipalities were strained.
Woods sudden death last March opened the Richland window a second time. But with Mac still playing the tune, Richland wasn't asking to dance. They promoted former Quakertown officer Larry Cerami to chief. And, seven months later, the window opened a third time, this one on the Quakertown side. McFadden resolved a blizzard of controversy by announcing his early retirement. Council floated the idea of a joint force, but it never gained any momentum. The process to select Mac's successor is now almost complete, down to the final four of 75 candidates from across the country.
The fact is, even with the best of intentions, Quakertown and Richland have too many differences to operate a single department. The borough is fully developed, with a stable population. Richland is growing, and has changing public safety needs. It would take a great deal of on-going cooperation to continually re-apportion the costs and manpower of a unified team. Even the act of combining would be a logistical nightmare. The current forces have different salary structures, different contracts, different promotion criteria, and different pension plans. Qtown's force is civil service, Richland's is not. Quakertown, a borough, has different ordinances, and different state requirements, than Richland, a township.
There is a question of how grant money would be apportioned, and whether a joint department, rather than two separate ones, would actually hurt the availability of police-support dollars. And, most of all, how would the chain of command be established on the force? It would be unreasonable to expect that Cerami would step down, and the borough is about to hire a person who will rightfully expect to be chief of his own department. The buck can only stop at one desk.
Regionalization did not work in Pennridge. Sellersville pulled out of the arrangement, and contracted with Perkasie for coverage. They felt that another town-oriented force was better suited to handle their problems than the rural-based East and West Rockhill officers. Sound familiar? And, to make matters worse, discussions between Qtown and Richland concerning a regional force have mentioned adding Milford, Trumbauersville, Richlandtown, and Springfield, creating a coverage area from Nockamixon to way beyond the turnpike. It would have Quakertown's downtown, Milford's business parks, Richland's developments, Springfield's rural roads, and Trumbauersville's only traffic light. Car 54 where are you?
Frankly, there are just too many obstacles to overcome here, and no burning necessity to do so. At the moment both departments are well-funded, and, with McFadden now retired, community relations will only get better. If it isn't broken, don't expect our goodwrenches to fix it. Leave something in that time capsule that our great-great-grandchildren can actually understand.