(WHTM) — Pennsylvania’s acting police commissioner said the state never considered moving Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) to Fort Indiantown Gap, a National Guard base in Lebanon County, after an arson attack at his official residence in Harrisburg last year.
The base used to house the state’s lieutenant governor, which prompted some Republican lawmakers to suggest Shapiro should have moved there rather than to his private residence in Montgomery County. Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Berks/Montgomery) went as far as to accuse the governor of putting his family at risk and breaking protocol.
“We have protocols in place for securing the governor anywhere we take him or his family,” said Lt. Col. George Bivens, who oversees Pennsylvania State Police, on This Week in Pennsylvania. “If something happens, we know where we’re going to take him next, but the Gap is not one of those options that is typically used.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs now owns the State House, which was the lieutenant governor’s residence until 2019. Bivens said there isn’t a facility on the base that state police could have moved the governor to in the middle of the night.
Republicans have taken issue with security upgrades at Shapiro’s private residence, which have cost the state as much as $1 million. Bivens said all those expenditures were directed by state police.
Shapiro describes a changed life in defense of security upgrades at home
Lawmakers pressed Bivens on the legal justification for the costs during a tense budget hearing. He’s no lawyer, but he stands by the unprecedented move, even though many consider it a legal gray area. This week, state police provided the Pennsylvania Treasury, which is headed by Stacy Garrity, the likely Republican nominee for governor, with a written explanation after it requested one.
“It will get sorted out,” Bivens said.
The security upgrades at Shapiro’s home haven’t only upset lawmakers, but also his neighbors, who claimed in a lawsuit that the governor unlawfully took possession of their property, which Shapiro denies. Bivens addressed an accusation in the lawsuit that Shapiro used state troopers to patrol the disputed land.
Watch This Week in Pennsylvania in the video player above to hear his response.
Every week, This Week in Pennsylvania gives a comprehensive look at the week’s biggest news events in Pennsylvania, provided by the abc27 News team, along with the latest updates on local stories.
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