Tag: Inquirer Local

Three officers will resign from the Oxford Police Department ahead of the borough joining a regional department, with many officers saying the path to employment has felt uncertain and not guaranteed.

The resignations — which the borough council approved Monday — come after Oxford’s officials approved, in a 5-2 split, to close the doors of their police department, citing ballooning expenses that outpaced the municipality’s revenue.

Under the vote, the borough will become part of the Southern Chester County Regional Police Department, which serves New Garden, West Grove, and Avondale, on Jan. 1, 2027.

To accommodate the growing geography, the regional department has pledged to hire 12 additional officers, with Oxford officials saying previously that their goal was for every officer to move over to the new force, if they wanted to. Oxford currently employs 11 full-time officers, including the chief, and several part-time officers.

Applications for the regional department were sent out to Oxford officers earlier this month, with a deadline to submit by Friday. The applications were also posted publicly.

But officers said that the road hasn’t been easy or transparent. In a meeting with The Inquirer at their station, the officers said that while it has been publicly stated that they are essentially guaranteed a job at the regional department, everything they have seen is “an opportunity to apply for a job.” Most officers spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

Officers who are leaving said the uncertainty and the borough’s decision to close their department ultimately led them to seek new employment.

Mayor Philip Harris said the borough was in active contract negotiations and declined to comment broadly on the situation.

For the officers resigning, he acknowledged the community may “consider that to be in discord with the merger/joinder.” He argued that it “highlights and amplifies what we’ve been saying all along.”

“It’s an incredibly difficult thing to recruit and retain officers,” he said. “They were recruited by other departments. They were offered better deals. That highlights some of the problems that brought us to this forefront.”

Officers who have not resigned have begun meeting with the regional department leadership, they said. But with the clock ticking and no formal contract in front of them, the officers are worried about what employment could look like after Jan. 1.

They are not sure what jobs they will get. With a cumulative experience of more than 280 years, they each have more than one year of service and have acquired rankings from corporal to sergeant. Those positions do not exist at Southern Regional, they say, making it unclear if they will lose rank in the transition.

Because they have not seen a contract, they don’t know whether they should take a severance package. There are differences in pensions between the two departments that officers think will complicate the transition, too.

“We have three that have secured jobs at other surrounding departments, and I haven’t seen one damn contract from Southern Regional,” one officer said. “What is my position going over there? How much am I making? What time am I carrying with me? My sick time, my vacation time, my seniority?”

A yearslong process

The move to regionalization has, essentially, been three years in the making, with borough officials long saying the police force costs more than it can afford. The borough has had several financial studies done in recent years examining the viability of the police department, and considering alternatives.

Under the agreement with Southern Chester County Regional, Oxford borough would have two officers on patrol 24-7, like the current structure. Their shifts would begin and end at a local substation, ensuring no gap in coverage, as Oxford is roughly 16 miles away from the other municipalities under the regional department’s coverage. The 12 additional officers, hired as part of this expansion, would join a force of 21 full-time officers.

There has been a growing trend of municipalities moving toward regionalization for high-price items in their annual budgets, like police, fire, and EMS. Public safety is at least 50% of the pie in most communities, experts have said.

Regionalization, however, has not been perfect. Across the state, municipalities have joined and then withdrawn from regional services due to increasing costs under the agreement, according to a Keystone Municipal Solutions analysis, which studied police structuring in Oxford.

Oxford officers said that there had been talks to merge with Southern Chester County Regional several years ago, but those discussions seemingly fell apart. Instead, officers recall, the department tried to make itself a possible regional hub — a force that could serve the municipalities that neighbor Oxford and currently use free coverage from the Pennsylvania State Police. Those talks also struggled to catch on.

Officers still heard rumblings about joining the Southern Chester County Regional, but formally found out about the renewed effort when the Oxford Police Association received a letter from the borough council saying the start of union contract negotiations would be put on hold as the council explored a merger.

Meanwhile, officers said, they are frustrated that the borough has not sought to slash costs in other areas, or will not wait for eligible members of the force to retire, where the pendulum on costs could swing back.

“They have a champagne police department on a beer budget,” an officer said.

Paul Frie, one of the officers who has accepted a position elsewhere, said that the borough’s decision to close its department caused him to look for other employment.

“I can’t trust them to have my back,” he said. “I couldn’t work for them when they so haphazardly threw my job to someone else, because it’s not a guarantee.”

Another officer, who has also resigned, said the uncertainty — and not knowing whether regionalization would stick — ultimately made the decision for him. It was hard: The officer grew up knowing many on the Oxford force, and said it was always a dream to work for the department.

“I’m glad I got to fill it, partially,” said the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It definitely sucks knowing this place isn’t going to be around.”

This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.