North Huntingdon police department’s actions won’t be reviewed by a resident-based oversight board.
Township commissioners this week rejected the concept of creating a police oversight board that would review any complaints lodged against officers. Only one of the seven commissioners voiced their support for the idea during a meeting on Wednesday.
Commissioners Eric Gass and Tom Hempel supported the idea last month after a resident, Dawn Lewandowski, suggested it at a meeting, but Hempel said this week he no longer favored the concept.
Gass said he was not surprised that the idea of an oversight board did not gain support from other commissioners.
“I do believe in a forms of checks and balances and I thought it was that,” Gass said of an oversight board.
Commissioner Ronald Zona, a retired state police trooper and chief of the Westmoreland County Detectives, repeated his position that he is strongly opposed to the idea.
“That’s a terrible idea. We (commissioners) are a part of the discipline process,” Zona said.
The elected commissioners already oversee the police department, said Commission Rich Gray said.
“Most of the complaints go away, a few we look into,” Gray said.
Michael Kowalski, a North Huntingdon resident and state police trooper at the Greensburg barracks, told the commissioners he believed that a review board was a horrible idea.
“Most people don’t understand police work,” Kowalski said.
