Police Department Merger:

Spring Garden Township Board of Commissioners approved the Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement (ICA) on February 12, 2025.  This ICA was also approved by the charter municipalities (East Manchester Twp, Windsor Twp, and York Twp) that are govern the Police Commission for York County Regional Police Department.  Discussions for this potential police merger started in the early Fall of 2023.  Chief George Swartz providing notice of his retirement and the Board of Commissioners for Spring Garden Township reviewed their options for police service.  A study was requested by the Board of Commissioners from the PA Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) to evaluate the Township's options for police services.  DCED completed the study and provided their findings to the Board of Commissioners.  The Township hosted two public meetings in the Fall of 2024 for comment from the    residents.  These meetings consisted of representatives from DCED, Spring Garden Township Board of Commissioners, representatives from Spring Garden Township Police Officers Association, Acting Chief of Police Adam Zimmerman, and Chief Tim Damon, York County Regional Police Department. 

The meetings were well attended and the overall consensus from the public was supportive of the Township merging with the regional police department.  The next several months involved the two entities working out the agreement of the ICA, and memorandum of understanding with the Spring Garden Township Police Officers' Assocation and a lease agreement for the Spring Garden Township building for the use of the "police wing" of the building.  

The Police Departments will be fully merged and operational by June 1, 2025.  

The York County Regional Police Department will have a compliment of 82 police officers.  The regional police department will be the largest regional police department in the Commonwealth in terms of number of police officers.  There are other departments that may have more municipalitiles or square miles.  

Discussions of a potential merger of the Northeastern Regional Police Department and York Area Regional Police Department started in the Spring of 2020.  During these discussions numerous topics were discussed: service area, police department buildings, the number of police officers needed, schedules, budget, Department name, resources, and training to name just a few of the many items that were covered.  

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the progress that was being made and during this time period we continued to work towards the goal of a merged department.  

August 16, 2021 the merger was finalized with the approvals and ordinances passed by East Manchester Township, Windsor Township and York Township.  

The name of the new agency is the York County Regional Police Department.  The timeline for the new regional police department to start operations was scheduled for January 1, 2022. 

The number of sworn police officers is 60 with 6 civilian personnel.  The Department will operate both police buildings in order to better serve the communities.  

There are several reasons for merging police departments which include: budget, recruiting, sharing resources and information sharing and reduction of duplication.    

The merger will have a positive outcome for the citizens and communities that are served by the new Regional Police Department.  

December 27, 2021 - Northeastern and York Area started to integrate officers from both departments into patrol operations to accomplish our effective merger date of January 1, 2022.  Both Departments executed a municipal police jurisdiction act letter to provide legal authority for the officers to patrol in each jurisdiction.