August 4th, 2008 - Daily Local News - Wallace Opts for its Own Police
An article was in the Daily Local today about last Thursday's special meeting ==> DLN Article
August 2nd, 2008 - Summary of Wallace 2007 Calls for Service and Traffic Stops
Below you will find a summary of the calls for service which includes officer initiated traffic stops (under traffic violations) for Wallace Township for 2007. It is derived from the County data included in the manpower study. We thought a more easier to read summary might help to get a picture of what types of crimes and calls for service occurred in Wallace Township for 2007. We included the difference in the numbers from the county and the BRPD as traffic violations, because this was the explanation offered by one of the officers from the BRPD. Apparently, all traffic stops must be logged with the county as East Brandywine township traffic stops, then later re-assigned to the Wallace Township totals depending on the location of the traffic violation. This is manually done by looking at the county reports when they are received at the BRPD.
Summary of Wallace 2007 Calls for Service and Traffic Stops
| Category | # | %Total | Comments |
| Alarm Total | 130 | 7.1% | |
| Animal Complaint Total | 64 | 3.5% | |
| Assault Total | 8 | 0.4% | |
| Assist Total | 15 | 0.8% | Calls for Assistance, Officer/Fire Department, etc. |
| Auto Accident Total | 61 | 3.3% | |
| Burglary Total | 4 | 0.2% | |
| Criminal Mischief Total | 7 | 0.4% | |
| Disturbance Total | 16 | 0.9% | |
| Domestic Total | 24 | 1.3% | |
| Drugs Total | 5 | 0.3% | |
| DUI Total | 3 | 0.2% | |
| Fire Total | 17 | 0.9% | Fire related calls i.e. brush fire, electrical fire |
| 911 Hang-Ups Total | 48 | 2.6% | |
| Hazard on Roadways | 76 | 4.1% | |
| Hazmat Total | 1 | 0.1% | |
| Medical Total | 101 | 5.5% | Calls for medical assistance |
| Misc Non Emergency Total | 317 | 17.2% | keys locked in car / Make a call to ... / etc. |
| Missing Person Total | 30 | 1.6% | |
| Noise Total | 14 | 0.8% | |
| Prowler Total | 1 | 0.1% | |
| Report of Gunfire | 4 | 0.2% | Report of hearing discharge of a weapon |
| Serve or Arrest Warrant Total | 9 | 0.5% | |
| Suspicious Nature Total | 46 | 2.5% | Not normal or of questionable nature (i.e. open door or window) |
| Theft Total | 11 | 0.6% | |
| Traffic Violations Total | 814 | 44.2% | |
| Trespassing Total | 10 | 0.5% | |
| Verbal Harassment Total | 4 | 0.2% | |
| 1840 | 100.0% |
August 1st, 2008 - Supervisors Adopt Police Department Ordinance
Well finally the residents of Wallace Township will have control of their own police force again (last night, at a special public meeting, the BOS voted to adopt a Wallace Township Police Department Ordinance.) Having 50% of our budget controlled by East Brandywine Township was not a wise situation. Since the very beginning of the BRPD Wallace Township has had no control over the level of service they receive and how much it must pay for those services. With East Brandywine having two votes to our single vote any disagreement with how East Brandywine had wanted to run the department ended in the Wallace representative being out voted 2 to 1. Now our residents input will finally matter, and we can all work together to model a department to our needs.
Three scenarios of how a Wallace Township police department could be organized were presented at the outset of the meeting. The following chart outlines the general makeup and cost for each type of department.
| # Of Officers | ||||||
| Type of Coverage | Budget | Savings over BRPD* | Savings by mil** | Full Time | Part Time | Comments |
| 20/7 Coverage (4 hour state police) | $550,000.00 | $371,000.00 | 1.5 | 4 | 2 | State police coverage from 2am to 6am |
| 24/7 Coverage | $727,000.00 | $194,000.00 | 0.8 | 5 | 4 | 800 excess part time hours, tight schedule |
| 24/7 Coverage | $829,000.00 | $92,000.00 | 0.4 | 6 | 4 | Allows for more flexible scheduling |
* Projected BRPD budget of $921,000
** Current property tax millage 2.4
While considering the 2am-6am State Police scenario we ran the numbers on how many calls are received during this time period (drawn from the county breakdown in the man-power study).
Calls for Service in Wallace Township: 2am-6am
- Monthly Average: 5.25
That is a rather low amount of calls. Certainly seems like a good time period to turn over to state police to help out the tax payers (state police service is free to the township).
Lastly, we want to thank Chief Swininger for his efforts to help out our township. We owe him a great debt of gratitude for his willingness to gather critical information for our BOS and the public. Having formed a police department locally already he is obviously well informed about the steps and costs of establishing and managing a police department. He adds a great deal of confidence to the whole process.
July 30th, 2008 - Slow News Day
The board of supervisors moved forward with accepting applications for the chief's position at their last public meeting. Taking a long period of public comment before and after the motion and vote. Somehow the Daily Local was able to find someone who thought that was a Sunshine Act violation (see our link to a copy of the Sunshine Act). You can't have sunshine violations by making motions in public. It doesn't even violate the "intent" as is proposed by Melissa Melewsky. The intent of the Sunshine Act is to have all decisions made in the public where the public can voice there opinion. This is exactly what happened. Must have been a slow news day...
July 30th, 2008 - Police Consultant submits two more reports
Two reports were posted on the township website today. We copied the update below. So you can go right to the links from here. We're reviewing the reports and there are really some interesting items in the man power study. Looks like there is a discrepancy in the number of calls for service the county has tracked and the number of calls for service the BRPD is using to determines Wallace's share of the budget. The county says there were 1,050 calls for service and the BRPD is reporting 1,840. Has Wallace been paying for more than it's fair share? We're still digging into the reports and will have more...
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| Two additional Reports from Police Consultant |
|
Chief Swininger submitted two additional
reports to the board of supervisors: a man power study and an
alternate police budget that includes a 6th full time officer.
Please follow the links below to review the reports |
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July 30th, 2008 - Wallace 2008 Budget
Catherine Poole today stated that the 2008 Budget for Wallace township was 1 million dollars ("With the twp. budget being just 1 million dollars, how can we justify using most of it for police?" - Catherine Poole). Again, she is well of the mark to the tune of nearly $600,000. We just want to set the record straight in our effort to cut through the rhetoric and get the true facts out to the public. Bending the truth to get a point across is not helpful to the discussion we are all attempting to have in Wallace Township. When there is time, we have quite a few erroneous claims we would like to address. The actual numbers are below and also a link directly to the Wallace Budget:
Total Income - Total Expense 2008 Proposed Budget
Total Income
$1,605,261.91Total Expense
$1,586,436.68Net Income $18,825.23
July 30th, 2008 - Wallace Police Department start up costs
We are hearing some misstatements about start up costs and their effect on the Proposed 2009 Wallace Police Department Budget and future budgets. The truth is that most if not all startup costs will come out of the 2008 expenses, not the 2009 budget or future budgets. So, truthfully, start up costs will have little or not effect on the 2009 budget or future budgets. More to come later...
July 29th, 2008 - Email from Catherine Poole
We received an email from Catherine Poole asking about who Wallace Voters is (see About Us page) and continuing to spread the false claim that "Bryan McDonaugh clearly said our taxes would double if we have our own police dept at the Board of supervisor's meeting last week." What was clear from the meeting is that Supervisor McDonaugh stated that our taxes would likely go up by 30-50% if we remain with the Brandywine Regional Police. We are sure this is just an honest mistake on her part. Although, he has made this statement at several meetings. If you look at our July 25th post this does seem to be an accurate assessment of what taxes would increase if Wallace remains with the Brandywine Regional Police. Whereas, based on the Police consultant's projected budget, taxes could be held around current levels if Wallace was to create it's own police department.
July 29th, 2008 - Updated road miles in the chart below.
Wallace Township has 28.79 miles of roads. 14.89 Township maintained roads, and 13.90 state roads.
July 28th, 2008 - A million dollars? Let's be honest here.
Using the usual scare tactics and rhetoric some are projecting out of thin air that our Wallace Police budget will be one million dollars and that consequently taxes will be doubled. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here are the facts. The Wallace Police Consultant estimated a budget for a 5 fulltime and 4 part-time officer force at $725,050 for 2009. Based on other local departments in Chester county with similar populations and road miles, each with just one less full time officer, they will all be nearly $150,000 less than the projected Wallace Budget for 2009. Providing $150,000 for the extra officer is actually rather conservative. See that chart below, the facts speak for themselves...
| Department | Population | Full Time | Part Time | 2008 Police Budget | 2009 Projected Police Budget** | Police Road Miles |
| West Vincent Police Dept | 4,040 | 4 | 2 | $533,000 | $564,980 | 75.05 |
| Birmingham Police Dept* | 4,268 | 4 | 6 | $549,377 | $582,339 | 39.49 |
| West Pikeland Police | 4,042 | 4 | 5 | $549,858 | $582,849 | 40 |
| Wallace Proposed 2009 Budget | 3,433 | 5 | 4 | $727,050 | 28.79 | |
| * Projected from 2007 budget based on 6% increase | ||||||
| ** Projected 6% over 2008 budgets | ||||||
July 25th, 2008 - We're Back (again...)
There have been a lot of rumors and accusations floating about these days. So we thought it was time someone started putting out the true facts about some of the issues facing our township. Unfortunately there are those who think slander, personal attacks and erroneous claims are helpful in a civil debate. We would like to use this site again to cut through the personal attacks and false claims in order to present facts and let you decide for yourselves. We would like to present a few facts tonight on the current police issue. Keep checking back, we will be posting more information on the police issue for now and will break out to other issues as they take precedence.
Oh, one more thing, you won't find anonymous posters here throwing out erroneous claims with no responsibility for their accusations. You won't find personal attacks. You won't find facts that have not been verified from credible sources. So if you send us information please know that we will not post it unless you source the information or are ready to stand behind your statements with your name. We think everyone deserves respect in this community, we are all neighbors. We're not going to let people be slandered and ridiculed, especially by faceless accusers. We want to see civil debate and people discussing and comparing the facts, etc. You won't find Oliver Stone type conspiracies here either. If you were looking for all of these things, sorry, you must have mistyped when you were entering the URL. This is the factual site, not the local National Enquirer site. One more note, if you do find errors with any of our facts please email us and let us know so that we can get them corrected. feedback@wallacevoters.com.
Some Facts about the Policing in Wallace Township
The Brandywine Regional Police Department (BRPD) has three commissioner seats that control the Regional Police. Two have always been controlled by East Brandywine Township. Wallace has been relegated to one seat and therefore has no control over costs or the administration of the Regional Police. Our largest and arguably most important budget item is controlled by East Brandywine Township.
How much will Wallace Township pay to remain with the Brandywine Regional Police Department (BRPD) in 2009 if the department continued to grow at its average of 12% a year: $921,800. If all other expenses were frozen in the township next year that would be a 38% property tax increase. We would then become the highest taxed 2nd class township in the county. Currently East Brandywine and Wallace township are the 3rd and 4th highest taxed townships in the county (out of 58!!!). Projecting out Wallace's share of the BRPD we would be paying more for our local property tax bill than for our county tax bill by 2012.
BRANDYWINE REGIONAL POLICE (PROJECTED WALLACE SHARE)
| 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | ||
| Wallace mils | 2.4 | 3.323 | 3.481 | 3.96 | 4.497 | 5.098 | |
| Average Household Burden | $ 541.44 | $ 749.67 | $ 785.32 | $ 893.38 | $ 1,014.53 | $ 1,150.12 | |
| Wallace revenue per mil | $240,265.38 | ||||||
| County mils | 3.804 | 3.92 | 4.04 | 4.163 | 4.29 | 4.421 | |
| Wallace one year additional | $ - | $ 65,000.00 | |||||
| Brandywine Regional Police Share | $700,000.00 | $921,800.00 | $ 959,616.00 | $1,074,769.92 | $ 1,203,742.31 | $ 1,348,191.39 | |
| Poilce Budget Growth % | 12% | ||||||
| County average growth rate from 2002 | 3.043% |
The budget prepared by an experienced local Chief who is currently running his own police department determined that our own police force would cost $727,050. For that cost the township could hold the line on property taxes for 2009. (Click here to see the report)
If Wallace township does not move on an alternative to the BRPD soon it will lose the option to start it's own police force (there is a minimum time needed to prepare) and become embroiled in the 2009 BRPD budget and the probable $921,800. Leaving the only other options that of relying on a neighboring township's police force and the costs they dictate to us, or going to state police.
According to Chester County Department of Emergency Services Wallace Township had 1,050 calls for service last year. That is less than 3 calls a day.
According to the formula provided by the IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) using population and call volume Wallace Township would be adequately served with one officer and one chief. Currently Wallace Township through the Brandywine Regional Police Department shares 14 officers and a Chief with East Brandywine Township.
How does Wallace Township's police expenses compare to surrounding township's?
| * population and households are 2007 stats | |||||||
| Police | Budget | of budget | population | per person | homes | per home | |
| West Brandywine | $ 1,089,540.00 | $ 3,009,655.00 | 36% | 7683 | $ 141.81 | 2801 | $ 388.98 |
| Upper Uwchlan | $ 1,460,592.00 | $ 6,170,835.00 | 24% | 9549 | $ 152.96 | 3039 | $ 480.62 |
| East Brandywine | $ 1,568,058.00 | $3,725,028.00 | 42% | 6485 | $ 241.80 | 2275 | $ 689.26 |
| East Nantmeal (State Police $0) | $ - | 0% | $ - | $ - | |||
| West Nantmeal (State Police $0) | $ - | 0% | $ - | $ - | |||
| Wallace | $ 765,362.00 | $1,521,436.68 | 50% | 3433 | $ 222.94 | 1065 | $ 718.65 |
More to come, check back soon....