The original item was published from October 14, 2019 9:53 AM to January 8, 2021 9:28 AM
Cranberry’s police department is among the best anywhere. We have highly trained, full-time professional police officers who are passionate about their service to our community. Their record of service to Cranberry is tremendous.
But, like every emergency service, police work is often complaint driven. That is, the majority of police actions have been prompted by someone calling 9-1-1 to report something. It could be to report an emergency that has just happened – a crash, a fire, a break-in, someone hurt, and so forth.
Or it could be about something suspicious – someone being where they shouldn’t be, or hearing something unusual, or witnessing something out of place. Of course, it could turn out to be nothing – a perfectly legitimate event. Or it could be potentially connected to a serious crime. In either case, those are the sorts of things our police are trained to investigate and to act on if it’s required.
But you shouldn’t hesitate or feel self-conscious about calling 9-1-1 just because it’s possible that what you report could turn out to be a non-event. No one will be mad at you. In fact, having citizens call in is the police department’s early warning system – the community’s first line of defense. So, when you think about Cranberry, with all of its 31,000 residents keeping an eye out for things that could be going wrong, you have a huge safety asset in place. And when you combine that with the private surveillance cameras, video doorbells, and other security electronics that people have installed, you have an even bigger asset.
There’s a lot more to say about this topic, so we’re going to hold a Coffee and Conversation get-together at 6:30 on Thursday, October 17 in our Public Safety Training Center, located near the Public Works area, adjacent to Community Park. Bob Winters from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will be our guest, along with Cranberry Police Chief Kevin Meyer, to talk about the important role that residents play in public safety.
I hope to see you there. But whether you can make it or not, I’d love to hear your thoughts about public safety and citizen participation in it. You can reach me at:
jerry.andree@cranberrytownship.org