little something about you ok thank you it's good to be here today with you and have the opportunity to talk with you i am new here although i've been here just about a year now i retired from the pennsylvania state police last august and retired august twenty ninth and started here on august thirty first so i took the weekend off and then started here in this position as the deputy chief oh ok the anticipation was at that point in time that i would at least have the opportunity to compete for the chief of police job and it gave me an opportunity in the township an opportunity to both kind of test the waters and see if i was the right fit for them and if they were the right fit for me and as it turns out we both think that it is but as i said i worked for the state police for twenty eight years and i retired as a major  with the state police my last position i was the executive director of the municipal police officers education and training commission and that position i oversaw all all of the training police there were twenty six police academies in pennsylvania we oversaw all twenty six police academies all twenty three thousand officers certifications there are mandatory in service training development was conducted through my office and we oversaw all of that see a lot of this know nothing about that rate yeah that's a that's a subject that a lot of people don't know a lot and in understandably so  but the process of becoming a police officer and maintaining your certification as a police officer is regulated by pennsylvania code and so those codes need to be followed and the m police officers education and training commission is the authority vested by government to oversee all of that training and ensure that police officers are following the proscribed requirements and so that that's what we did and  was a very enlightening job for me enjoyed it very much made a lot of changes in municipal policing in my short time there i was there for about two years and in that time we restructured the way the in service training would be conducted what in service training would be approved and we created more options for police officers to gain training and benefit from that training towards their certification each year every two years police officers are required to go through a research of occasion period and each police department is required to provide information to the municipal police officers education and training commission notifying them that their officers took the proper steps to maintain their certification and training so either the world or the public doesn't know what the police department is through yes there is even become a policeman and what they do or how those courses are developed is we looked at current trends in law enforcement and in the public and to try to determine where there might be some training back breakdowns or some training that needed bolster and then we would begin to develop courses that supported those issues was very important for us and it's very important for the public as well pennsylvania insta jack system where anytime someone wants to go buy a new firearm they have to go through the pens for the instant check system to verify that they are allowed good to legally possess a weapon and then prior to that i was in  the bureau of criminal investigation and oversaw a couple of different occasions the auto theft unit in western pennsylvania and also the fugitive apprehension unit and where we oversaw the team and was part of the team that hunted down basically pennsylvania's ten most wanted and we traveled all over the state in fact all over the country looking for pennsylvania's ten most wanted to bring them to justice so bring him said excuse me i should also tell you i grew up back here good i grew up in jefferson hills and spent of the twenty eight years with the state police twenty three of those i spent away from here and so when i was nearing retirement with the state police i began to look at job opportunities that came up and one of the job opportunities was peters township and that was very exciting for me to see because this is such a great community it's so close to home i'm now less than ten miles from my parents and about twelve or fourteen miles from my wife's parents she's from  and so this was a nice opportunity for us to come home to kind of reengage our childhood home and family and and live in a very nice community and be part of this this area other children so we do have two sons they're both older and married twenty eight and thirty one next week and they're both married and we're going to be grandparents here in the relative near so we talk about the trend then sure some of the trends that we're seeing now that the biggest spike that we're seeing is in the area of identity theft and scams so what is happening is people all people they're not focused on a specific age group but all people are receiving phone calls from someone who's claiming to be i r s or claiming to have information about a relative who's in prison or claiming to need information to verify a particular credit card or bank account or something along those lines and it's important for our citizens dunder sta that these banks that hold a credit card or that hold your banking account information they have your account information they don't need you to verify it and so you should never be willing to give your bank information over the phone to someone who calls you so that's first and foremost the second thing is regarding identity theft that's happening more and more and we're seeing anywhere from a four to five hundred percent increase in identity theft and because now what they're doing is that when they call them are able to route that number through a local number and it appears as though it's a local number when in fact the call may be coming even from out of the country so it's i mportant to listen to the conversation and when they start asking you for information then you need to stop the conversation personally i've had it where my father in law  contacted and told that my son and they had my son's name was in jail and needed bailed out well mike fortunately my father in law knew that wasn't the case but they were trying to convince him that he needed to send money to them to bail him out and you know that that's one of the scams and some of the other scams include as i said someone calling saying that they're from the i r s well i knew that the air is does not they do not so information and just like another scam you can get from time time or people calling to claim they're collecting money from the far department or for the police department and so that's something that we need to be aware of and you know just again this so long as the public understands that these institutions if you are part of them and you have an account with them they don't need you to verify their information so to verify your information and so you just need to be aware that i have to cause i used to get something for the police department yes you know like i was telling you before that i just called over here to see if you get any of the benefits and we do deal with the people that you know the church that you go to or the the police department in this apology or whatever your community charity that if it's within your community work with them there are many community many charities in this community who would be happy to take anyone's assistance whether that's physical labor or monitor it right there a lot of charities i'm sure would appreciate that benefit so yeah i know i'm involved with  center the senior center yes down there and i know there's a lot of well it's hard to get help sometimes but sometimes you were things that it's very very sad and we do the best we can wri well the best thing is always to stay seated in your car and people have to keep in mind that the officer when he's making that traffic stop doesn't know who he's dealing with or what the circumstances are and so his approach is going to be very tactical and very specific and and sometimes people get put off by that but they really shouldn't because the intention there is to both protect them and protect himself so if they remain in the car keep your hands where they're visible because again we don't know who you are or what your situation is where you're coming from and just speak to the officer politely politely as he approaches the c you know one of the things that we're fortunate to have is we're fortunate to be to live in a country in a society where we the rule of law is intended to prevail and the rule of law was only prevail if everyone understands their responsibilities and that is one of the worthy engages you to listen to the direction of authority and that's what the police officers badge is meant to convey and then if there's something wrong there then we can address that after the fact and so it's important that we recognize that it's important not to be overzealous or something like that yes this way you can program where we have one of our officers at school at all times with the exception of training conflicts that do exist from time to time that's been a very successful program our officer this the school is well respected and i think well loved by both the teachers and the administration and the students at the school so it's been a very good program in just a short time i've been here that's easily to recognize easy to recognize the the success of that program we also have a dare program which is the drug program where we teach elementary age students how to recognize drugs and how to abstain it's a start to get into their thought process early on so then the stand the impact of drugs on  and so that also has been a very successful program and we intend to restructure it a little bit this coming year but we certainly don't intend to take it away and i think it's a very very valuable program that we will without a doubt continue to do beyond that we have a dear management program because as most people know who live in the area we have an abundance of deer and they create a problem when they decide to  make the highway part of their habitat and so it's important for us to try to manage the deer population so that we can mitigate the vehicle accidents with use maybe the highway was part of their absolutely and so but there's a there was a number of issues years ago i as i understand it in my national assessment of the program there again that program has been very successful now we have a specific number of hunters who are given permits by the township to hunt and take deer from the area so we can kind of reduce the number of core deer accidents continue to do that as well and w beautiful creature they certainly are and so people get in gear and no pun intended by looking at them and so they want to see the more often they can put food out but i knew i had a little i don't know as a well i think we'll take a little recess right now and our thoughts together ok good my grandfather served in world war two spending time with him were the best memories of my life i became a physician in v a because of my grandfather so i can help others like him i can't imagine working with better doctors or more dedicated staff i'm fulfilling my life's mission with the help of my team and thanks to these veterans i'm proud to be a doctor i i'm proud to honor my grandfather every day search v a careers to find out more here something we bet you didn't know nearly half of all cancers can be prevented that's right half nearly fifty percent mostly by making small everyday changes in your diet and controlling your weight walking more eating less and eating foods that help you and your family to seriously reduce the risk of cancer and of course by not smoking visit the cancer prevention together we can website and get a free thirty day planner filled with tips recipes stats and more about protecting your family go to prevent fifty to work ok well we're back again and we'd like to continue with our interview with the chief here  and the deer management program and again that that program deer management has been very successful at this point in time we're not looking to expand in my new role as the chief  of the things that i'm looking to do is to kind of pull things back a little bit tighter and make a more formal assessment of what we're best equipped to do before expanding out any further so once we get a better gr better understanding of everything that we're capable of doing and everything that is needed in the community then we may assess and determine that we want to initiate some additional programs or do something to change the existing programs that we can you think of anything else that the public might be interested in just to elaborate maybe a little bit more on when they're pulled over and a traffic stop is a very important question it is and today is probably more important than ever and you know we talked a little bit about when the officer approaches the car to remain in the car keep your hands visible speak to the officer politely my goal and our goal here is to address you professionally as we stop you and it's important for the public to understand that the officers are initiating those traffic stops for what they have viewed as a violation a traffic violation it's not intended to punish people but rather to ensure compliance with the roles in the laws for our highways it's worth saving saving somebody and saving lives and so you know the biggest complaint that we've had here in my short time that i see is from our area residents who complain that people are running stop signs or speeding in their neighborhood and so that's an important issue because it's important everybody who lives in that neighborhood especially folks who have kids and may play near the street but it seems a little strange that each neighborhood is complaining each of us are driving through each of those neighborhoods and so it's important that we drive wherever we go as if our kids live there if we would drive with that thought in mind that we're in our own neighborhood and it's important for us to be aware of the fact that people are concerned about your speed that would help a lot and so we're going to look at some programs and what we can do in communicating with some of the a joy presidents and some of the complainants who have made complaints about speeding to see what we can do to address those issues we've already started some of that by conducting what we call metro counts metro caus device that gives information to the police department regarding the speed and time and number of vehicles on some of our roadways and as we assess that one of the things that predominantly sticks out is that people aren't going as fast as the residents who live there seem to think they are and that's not unusual really unusual because speed is a relevant factor and if you're standing beside the road in a car comes by you at thirty miles an hour that's a lot different than being in the car and driving down the road at thirty miles an hour or passing them in a car because you're standing there and that vehicle passes by very very quickly or apparently very very quickly and so you know we need to take a look at that and look at the data and determine is there really a problem here regards in regards to speed or is it something that's just perception  related and when that happens we need to find a way to be able to communicate and so that said we still want to keep in mind the concerns of our motoring public and of our residents in these communities  but we also need to be able to convey accurately one of one of the things with me this will place that is true is we do not have the access or authorized authorization to use radar as the state police do and radar would be a big help in enforcing speed in municipalities radar you don't need the white lines on the road radar you don't need a specific site distance is as outlined in the law in the statutes but that's been a big hurdle for the legislature to pass it even though and i know from my time with the pennsylvania state police the state police endorse s the use of radar by local police departments but it's becomes a legislative issue a year in and year out and seems to never get passed but that would be something that would be beneficial well how do you how do you go about getting this radar then you go through the well the legislature would have to pass new legislation giving us the authorization to use it and it would help the department it would help the department having access to it currently we employ stopwatches and timing devices to conduct speed enforcement that's to some extent that's an antiquated method of conducting speed very very  accurate when used properly but nonetheless it would be it's much more complex in regards to the use of it with a radar gun again having been with state police for twenty years i used a radar gun for a number of years  can you think of anything else that might be of interest you know i think we are here for the community our goal is to protect and serve not just as a motto or just saying but that is our goal that's our objective we will strive to meet that and we'll continue to strive to make this department better with each day that passes and the way that we work just thank you i think you know that