END FREE USE OF STATE COPS; REBUILD RANKS

Everyone in Pennsylvania expects police to come when called for help, but not all Pennsylvanians expect to pay for state police service. Now, as state police face a growing shortage of troopers, that should end.

A recent analysis of PSP staffing by the Tribune-Review of Pittsburgh found that between 2008 and 2014, the number of Pennsylvanians relying exclusively on state police rose by 90,000 as the number of troopers assigned to regional stations declined by 17 percent. Staffing declines occurred at 75 percent of those stations even though 1,177 new troopers graduated from the State Police Academy over the same period.

State police are short 331 troopers due to a wave of retirements. And that is likely to worsen soon. About 1,000 troopers are eligible for retirement this year and about 1,600 of the force's 4,358 troopers will be eligible to retire within four years.

Lawmakers have the ability to mitigate the problem by making the most efficient use of the available force as it rebuilds.

First, state law should not allow free use of state police agencies for primary local municipal law enforcement, which is not the agency's purpose. Rather, the Legislature should mandate the creation of regional local police departments in rural areas that tend to rely exclusively on state police. Now, the state has only 25 regional departments covering 135 towns.

Lawmakers should take up state Rep. Mike Sturla's suggestion. The Democratic Policy Committee chairman from Lancaster wants to assess a $156 per capita state tax on residents of towns that poach state police services, and use the money to help fund the agency.

And, as state police patrols diminish, 150 troopers are assigned exclusively to casinos. That must end. The gambling houses pay for the service, but the troopers are trained at public expense to serve the public. Casinos, private enterprises, can cover their own security as troopers return to more appropriate duty.

- The (Scranton) Times-Tribune

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.