Palmyra Borough hears one-year update on Western Lebanon County Regional PD

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Palmyra Borough Council heard a one-year update from Western Lebanon County Regional Police Department Chief Andrew Winters at the June 10 meeting. 

He said they did 8,897 calls for service, 2,253 traffic stops, and 927 walking details. He said there were 2,089 traffic citations and 247 arrests. Percentage-wise, he said 61% of activity took place in Palmyra and 39% took place in Annville.

“That’s what we did in a year being down one body basically for the whole year,” Winters said. “It’s a rough picture of what happened in year one.”

The department is currently in the process of hiring a new officer to fill that vacant position, he said.

The Western Lebanon County Regional Police Department is a merged department between the Palmyra Borough and the Annville Township services. The municipalities started discussing a combined force in 2022, and it became official when they signed a charter agreement on April 4, 2023.

It went into effect on May 27, 2024.

Read More: Annville-Palmyra police merger is on track to go live on May 27

Also in his report, Winters discussed some common scams that are hitting the Lebanon County community. He said many people are getting phone calls and text messages demanding money, and residents should also approach these with caution.

“If you get phone calls and people are asking you, you owe them something, you downloaded something you shouldn’t, and they’re telling you you can get out of it by giving gift cards, buy Bitcoin, go take money out of the bank but don’t talk to anybody, please don’t do it,” he said. “We’re starting to see more people doing some of that stuff.”

He recommended that people not answer numbers they don’t recognize and not give credit card or banking information to unknown people.

Sometimes these scammers claim to be with a bank or police department. He said in those cases, hang up and call the institution directly to verify.

In other business, council decided they will meet with the borough solicitor before the next meeting to talk about an ordinance to regulate skill games. Several council members said they weren’t opposed to the possible ordinance, but they wanted to make sure they were not leaving themselves open to lawsuits.

Palmyra Borough Council will meet next at 325 S. Railroad St. on June 24 at 7 p.m. Meetings are also streamed on the Palmyra Borough, Lebanon County Pennsylvania YouTube page.