Newtown Police Answer Over 1,000 Calls in Past Month, Detective Position Created

NEWTOWN SQUARE– Chief Dennis Anderson updated the Board of Supervisors with recent police activity happenings for the past month at Monday's supervisors meeting.

From Feb. 26 to March 26, Anderson stated that the department received 1,048 calls for service.

Some of the higher number of calls received were for traffic detail with a total of 123 calls–75 citations were given. In addition 100 calls were made for business building checks, 87 for medical emergencies, 68 for suspicious person, vehicles or circumstances and 53 calls for township alarms.

Other miscellaneous calls included 12 for fingerprinting, 16 for disturbances (9 for domestic calls), 33 9-1-1 hangup calls and 14 fire calls.

Police Protocol At St. David's Bridge During Construction

During the , Anderson stated that he had reached out to Radnor Police to coordinate responding to any emergencies in that area during that time.

"I have made a call to Radnor and we're working out a detail where, if we get an emergency once the bridge is out, that Radnor will respond until we can get there," said Anderson. "It's going to be timely for us to get around to the emergency, so we're working that out with Radnor."

PennDOT will be heading the project in which the anticipated duration for the bridge, located on the 3300 block of St. David's Road, will last approximately three months.

Detective Position Established On Police Force

Det. John Newell has been with the Newtown Police Department for approximately 14 years. But, according to Supervisors Chairman Joseph Catania, an official position for detective has not been established for the force.

"It's not taking any of the patrolman away. It's just basically creating that position because it becomes very evident that this township not only through the person that's detective now, John Newell is a big asset...with the overall job that he does," explained Catania.

In addition, Catania stated the position for detective has been needed and will be needed in the future as well as a possible adddition to the detectives unit in the future.

"It's very clear we're going to need a detective position going into the future–that's never going to change. The only thing that may change in the future–5, 10 years from now–we may have to add a detective dependent upon the case load that they handle."

Catania said the supervisors will collaborate with the collective bargaining unit for the Newtown Police Department to create a specific job description. Newell be the acting detective until the description has been finalized.

Catania made a motion to create a position for detective and was seconded by Supervisors Vice Chairman Dr. Ross Lambert. The motion passed unanimously, 4-0. Supervisor George Wood was absent from the meeting.