A group of community members in Clearfield is hoping to save the Clearfield Regional Police Department, which the borough council is thinking about dissolving.
Christina Fulton is a Clearfield resident and co-founder of the “Save the CRPD” group. She worries if the council dissolves the regional police department, there will be fewer local officers and more reliance on state police.
“I don’t think people really realize how it’s going to affect them until we don’t have the police," Fulton said.
Clearfield Borough and Lawrence Township formed the Clearfield Regional Police Department in 2023 as a cost-saving measure.
But in December, Clearfield borough council members voted to dissolve the regional police department and form their own, saying the partnership is costing too much money. Before that vote, CRPD asked for about $1.5 million dollars in 2026, and revised the budget to about $1.1 million after getting pushback from the borough.
A judge has since issued a stay on the dissolution, saying there either has to be an “amicable agreement,” or a one year notice.
Bruce Fair is a Clearfield Borough council member who supports the effort to save the CRPD. Fair said his personal opinion is that he’s skeptical of council members who think they can have their own police coverage for only $1 million a year.
“The only way to achieve that number will be to sacrifice service, and the citizens of the borough and the township will suffer because the police coverage will be nowhere near what it is now," Fair said.
Fair said four or five officers have already been laid off from the regional police department. He said Clearfield ran out of money for the department in September last year.
Tim Winters is a Clearfield County Commissioner and former Clearfield Borough Council Member. Winters, who also spoke in his personal capacity, said the CRPD has some budgeting issues, but he thinks those issues are solvable.
“It’s worth trying to work this out," Winters said. "We see there’s other communities throughout rural Pennsylvania, the combining of smaller communities, mutual aid agreements, even the combining of fire departments have become more common.”
The Save the CRPD group is planning a community rally in downtown Clearfield on April 26. Fulton said the group is also seeking more volunteers in the meantime.
“Our goal is to have a four month long campaign where we are reaching out to our community, talking to our neighbors, making sure they understand the facts and circumstances around this matter and just out there knocking on doors," Fulton said. "We have a petition planned to try to gather petition signatures, and then we'll submit those to our elected officials.”
There’s no formal dissolution date for the regional police department.
Many municipalities in Pennsylvania rely on state police since they don't have a full-time local police department, including Philipsburg in Clearfield County.
Earlier this month, Pennsylvania House Democrats introduced a bill that would impose a fee on municipalities that rely on state police. Besides that potential added fee, Fulton also worries about long response times and the fact that state police won't enforce local ordinances.
