Salisbury Township Police chief Donald Sabo says the first three months of his tenure leading the community’s 19-officer force has gone “pretty much as expected” because of a well-seasoned group of officers.

Sabo cites the current top three officers in the department, with more than 60 years of experience and leadership in Salisbury Township, as a stabilizing influence.

“We have had a lot of staffing ‘movement’ in the department in a short period of time,” Sabo said.

Chief Kevin Soberick retired in November 2022 and longtime Sgt. Ron Patten retired earlier in the year. But two longtime officers, Detective Charles Whitehead and Detective Christopher Casey, were promoted to sergeant upon Patten’s retirement.

Sabo was promoted from sergeant to chief in November 2022.

Sabo said two detective/corporals will be named shortly and he hopes to add a lieutenant in 2023, who would be second in command of the department.

Staffing is generally the most pressing challenge facing the department, Sabo said. “We are just not getting qualified new applicants,” he said.

“It’s a regional problem being faced all over the Lehigh Valley,” Sabo said.

Even though Salisbury Township is part of a regional law enforcement hiring consortium, the number of applicants is at an all-time low.

Sabo said information about qualifying for the next round of testing for applicants can be found on the Internet at lehighcountypolicetest.com.

Applications for the current round of hiring must be in by Feb. 17, Sabo emphasized.

Salisbury, like other municipalities, has dropped the requirement that applicants must have completed police academy training. Now, new officers will be able to complete that academy training after they are hired.

Another goal in 2023, Sabo said, is to complete the process of becoming an accredited Pennsylvania law enforcement entity. Accreditation is a necessarily long and intensive process.

The Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association introduced the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Program to the Commonwealth in July 2001. Since then, over 375 agencies have enrolled and 149 agencies currently maintain accredited status.

Accreditation is a progressive and time-proven way of helping institutions evaluate and improve their overall performance, Sabo said.

The cornerstone of this strategy lies in putting into effect standards containing a clear statement of professional objectives.

Participating administrators then conduct a thorough analysis to determine how existing operations can be adapted to meet these objectives.

When the procedures are in place, a team of independent professionals is assigned to verify that all applicable standards have been successfully implemented. The process culminates with a decision by an authoritative body that the institution is worthy of accreditation. While the Salisbury accreditation process has been ongoing for more than two years, the department personnel changes have slowed the process.

Sabo said a state grant of $68,000 has been recently awarded that will allow a full-time accreditation manager to shepherd the process.

Renee Gibson, of Allentown, an administrative assistant for the police department, has been put in that position and is working toward completing the process by 2024.

Sabo said another area of concentration for the Salisbury force is the long-standing situation along Constitution Drive in the eastern portion of the township.

The area, known as Walking-Purchase Park, has long been a hot spot for illegal activity.

The area is a wooded, steep-terrain plot of land along the Lehigh River. The area is partly in Salisbury Township and partly in the cities of Allentown and Bethlehem.

Sabo said the remote area has been used as a dumping ground for stolen cars, furniture, appliances and other household trash and the area has been overrun by illegal all-terrain vehicles and other trespassing activities.

The Salisbury Police Department has recently procured two street-legal cycles, Sabo said, that can be used to pursue violators beyond areas accessible by patrol vehicles.

For many years, Sabo, as a sergeant on the force, also served as Salisbury’s fire marshal, a position precluded as chief.

Officer Kyle Watson has been involved in training for the position of certified fire investigator and is expected to be named as fire marshal in 2023, Sabo said.

Training by outside agencies and mentoring within the department will allow Watson to be qualified before the end of the year, Sabo said.

A policy put into effect by Sabo in November 2022, as soon as he became chief, aims to foster good community relations in the township.

Sabo said that every complaint lodged by a township resident, whether it be by phone, email, social media or in person, will be investigated and answered by a township officer or employee.

Sabo said that policy will help assure that residents “are being heard” as they participate in being a citizen of Salisbury Township.

“Since November, we are being told that this back and forth between law enforcement and our citizenry has enhanced the lines of communication in the township,” Sabo said.

Sabo said he also appreciates the “Support our Police” yard signs that have been appearing in township neighborhoods. “Our aim is not only to ‘Serve and Protect,” Sabo said. “It’s our desire that local law enforcement is a true partnership between our officers and our residents.”