Teens in Town Center

This evening's Public Safety committee was well attended by residents who actively participated in the discussion. The meeting was dominated by the critical teen issue in our town center. It is clear that both residents and business interests want Doylestown Borough to take a leadership position to address the problem.

Police Chief Donnelly prepared a three year historical report of complaints and arrests that demonstrated a dramatic increase in incidents for Doylestown Borough. Using this data, the Chief presented a law enforcement proposal that included the following components.

• Education
  Notification letters to parents when a teen is engaged in unlawful and disruptive activity (first time response, preceding a citation)
  
• Citations
  Increase the number of citations issued to teens
• Town Watch
  Start program of adult volunteers
  
• Surveillance
  Security cameras to record video in Parks and Public Areas
• Personnel
  Hire an additional full-time Police Officer to work during the peak and critical hours
  

Based upon feedback from residents and discussion within the committee, members also proposed the addition of a curfew. The graduated curfew would feature steps for 18-under and 14-under (ie. 14 year olds would have an earlier curfew). Citations would be issued to teens who violated the curfew. As a result of this discussion, the borough will consult with its solicitor and develop an advertisement for such an ordinance.

Both the public and committee members were supportive of the overall comprehensive plan, but there was some dissent regarding the hiring of a Police Officer. Hiring an additional officer is a serious commitment for our borough and not to be approached lightly. If a full-time officer is not hired, the borough still incurs large overtime expenses and the costs associated with training and utilizing high-turnover part-time police officers.

I support hiring an additional officer to help address our current law enforcement challenges and improve the safety/security of our residents.

Hiring an officer is a time consuming process. If Doylestown Borough does not start the civil service process now, we would be unable to hire a full-time police officer in time for the spring/summer season. Understanding the dissent over a full-time resource, I made a motion this evening that Doylestown Borough begins the civil service process. If council can establish agreement on the hiring of an officer, we will have a head start on the hiring process without delay. The motion passed with strong support of the committee.

The recommendations of the Public Safety committee will be presented to the full Doylestown Borough Council at its next session. Further, a large public meeting will be conducted in February to review the overall plan and get the feedback of the public. I will post those dates as soon as they become available.

I would like to thank everyone who participated in tonight's meeting. It was great to see so many familiar faces and receive such great comments and feedback.

Thank you for your support!