David Steffen, retired police chief of the Northern Lancaster Regional Police Department and peer consultant, has been working on a Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development peer-to-peer management report for Catasauqua Borough Police Department for about a year. He shared his insights into the 93-page report in a presentation before council at the meeting Jan. 16.

Tasking objectives included evaluating the organizational internal management practices, applying high-performance police agency best practice comparative analysis metrics, evaluating the Catasauqua department’s policies and risk management and fiscal management practices, identifying opportunities to implement alternative responses, assessing the current workload and performance against service expectations, evaluating the organizational structure, developing strategies for relocation to optimize the use of existing resources and identifying staffing needs.

Steffen used meetings with local governmental leadership and the police department command staff to gain a greater understanding of the department’s goals and the context of the study. He utilized data collection for every functional area of the department to understand the workload and service levels. He used comparative data analysis for this report.

He took time to note some of the department’s areas of strength. These included the fleet, headquarters facility, technology infrastructure, fingerprinting compliance rate and offense clearing rates.

He noted Catasauqua Police Department “falls within locally expected ranges for both part one and part two offenses.”

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Uniform Crime Reporting Program divides offenses into two parts. Part one offenses include criminal homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, forcible rape, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson. Part two offenses include simple assault, forgery, fraud, embezzlement, vandalism, prostitution, drug abuse violations, weapons, driving under the influence and more.

According to his presentation, Catasauqua meets or exceeds the general requirements for the submission of fingerprints.

“In Pennsylvania, you only have so many hours to submit fingerprints,” Steffen said.

He noted Catasauqua’s median fingerprint submission rate is 93.3%. Lehigh County’s submission rate is 91.2%, and the state’s rate is 85.8%.

Steffen reported Catasauqua has a “low crime rate here in the borough.”

Much of the presentation centered on areas of deficiency, which he said could benefit from some more attention. These areas include leadership, supervision, policy development, staffing and scheduling, overtime distribution and utilization and the management of unfunded liability exposures.

Leadership concerns, according to the presentation, involved distancing from executive responsibility, such as a vague acceptance of the management’s responsibility for agency outcomes and policy design and a failure to keep current on legislation and policy measures.

Steffen also shared his concern about the absence of key performance metrics for individual or agency performance monitoring and comparative analysis.

He noted the borough has a management system in place, but it is being underutilized.

“High-functioning agencies should have a clear, strategic plan,” Steffen said, noting Catasauqua’s department does not.

One of his biggest concerns was about the department’s policies. He said there really is no centralized place for officers to access policies, and many of the policies in place are outdated or unfinished.

“Every policy should be looked at every two years,” Steffen noted, adding critical policies may need to be looked at more often.

He was concerned the Catasauqua policies were not being reviewed and updated regularly. He noted some policies were left in draft form instead of being finalized.

“Law enforcement policies promote accountability to police officers for their actions, which can greatly help build trust between the police and their communities,” the presentation reported.

He stressed the importance of having firm yet understandable policies for officers to understand and to help protect the force. He reminded council police departments have been under increased scrutiny during the last few years, and clear and solid policies geared toward best practices and updated with current legislation can help protect the department and the borough.

“There are too many areas of exposure,” Steffen said in regards to the department’s policies not being updated, completed or approved.

He also shared his apprehension with a practice in the borough that could be “profoundly harmful.” Steffen noted the collective bargaining unit members approve policies for the department. He said this is not necessary, and the policies should be approved by subject-matter experts.

“This is unprecedented,” Steffen added. “This is an unnecessary obstacle to your success.”

Other concerns included distancing from best practices, such as evidence audits and deficient case management functions, a lack of first-line supervision, leadership distancing from fiscal management responsibility, lack of strategic and tactical planning function and deficient management of scheduling and resource allocation.

He said the department is adequately staffed, but some attention should be spent looking at scheduling and overtime. He reported excessive overtime is a detriment to the officers’ safety, the borough budget and the community.

“Overtime is killing you guys,” Steffen noted. “It’s not adequately managed.”

Police department overtime was a major factor discussed when the borough was putting together its budget. It was noted they have already been working on reducing the overtime needs for the last few years.

Steffen also raised his concerns about unfunded liabilities such as future pension impacts, accrued compensatory time liabilities, unlimited “buckets of owed time” and lack of managerial oversight to contain or control unfunded liabilities.

He also noted it is a good practice to have the policies and up-to-date information available for the public on the website. He suggested updating the website and making it “a usable tool for the community.”

Councilwoman Jill Smerdon said many of the issues noted revolve around department leadership.

“Would you describe the chief of police as negligent?” Smerdon asked.

“I wouldn’t say negligent, but deficient based off what I was offered,” Steffen responded.

Councilman Gene Schlegel asked Steffen where they should start in addressing the problems.

Steffen said they have a few options, which include not doing anything, dissolving the local force and using state police coverage, exploring regionalization with nearby municipalities or engaging with the current force and creating a plan. He suggested they use a bigger perspective and implement a performance action plan.

“These things take time and take resources,” Steffen said, recommending they start closing the gap on some of these exposures.

Steffen reported the DCED is available to help guide communities. He said they can help provide people with subject-matter expertise to assist in addressing some of the concerns.

“You guys have a lot of work to do,” Steffen said. “But these problems are opportunities. These are fixable problems.”

Council members held a special meeting Jan. 29 to discuss the results of the report and next steps.