Allentown Police Chief Glenn Granitz Jr. has resigned to accept the same position in West Reading Borough, Berks County.

Granitz has served as chief of the department since September 2019. His resignation is effective June 16.

“I commend Chief Granitz for his leadership of the department,” Mayor Ray O’Connell said in a news release. “He lowered the crime rate and strengthened the department’s relationship with the community.

“There is no doubt that he put his heart and soul into the job. Our loss is West Reading’s gain.”

Granitz commented on his move.

“I will miss serving the residents of Allentown and I will miss working with the men and women of the APD,” Granitz said. “I look forward to the new opportunities that are available to me and my family going forward.”

Granitz joined the department in 2001 and graduated from the Allentown Police Academy.

He was assigned to the Criminal Investigations Division as a detective in 2005.

In 2008, he joined the Lehigh County Homicide Task Force and was involved in multiple homicide arrests and convictions in cases dating back as far as 1998.

In 2010, Granitz was promoted to detective/sergeant in the Criminal Investigations Division overseeing investigations in the areas of homicides, robberies, sexual assaults, property crimes and more.

In 2013, Granitz was selected to lead the Youth and Community Services Division of APD, evaluating and assigning investigations and supervising all youth detectives and school resource officers.

Additionally, during that time he oversaw APD’s Gang Intelligence initiatives.

Granitz was promoted to lieutenant in May 2015 and was assigned to the third platoon being responsible for directing police response and positioning of personnel for call response and crime prevention of on-duty personnel.

He was promoted to captain in August 2017 serving center city, overseeing the fourth platoon and all officers assigned to patrol the center city area, including the Center City Bike Unit.

Granitz is credited with continuing the reduction in the city’s crime rate.

Violent crime fell 11 percent last year.

The department took 244 guns off the streets in 2020, the largest number ever.

“Recruiting female and Hispanic officers at an unprecedented rate is one of the many accomplishments of my administration,” Granitz said. “Entrance into the CALEA national police accreditation program for the first time in our city’s history is another.”

Granitz has a Bachelor of Science from St. Joseph University and an Master of Science degree in criminal justice administration from University of Cincinnati.

Granitz is also a graduate of the Northwestern University - School of Police Staff and Command.

He has completed the FBI-LEEDA Command Leadership training and the FBI-LEEDA Executive Leadership Training, among multiple other law enforcement supervisory trainings.