Rep. Justin Fleming, a Democrat in Dauphin County, says one of his local municipalities pays $200 per person each year to maintain a local police force. Fleming notes that roughly 2/3ds of Pennsylvania municipalities do NOT support a local police force, and rely on state police coverage for their law enforcement.
In a co-sponsorship memo, Fleming proposes that municipalities without local police pay an extra annual fee that goes directly towards state police funding.
Fleming says it would be a per-resident fee. The smaller a municipalities population, the smaller the fee– and vice versa. Fleming says past legislation has ranged from $8 per resident for smaller municipalities and $75 per resident for larger municipalities.
Fleming says state police lack the resources to quickly respond to non-traffic crimes in these communities with no other police presence. He argues an annual fee could give better resources for these state police reliant communities. He also says the fee comes back to fairness. His constituents pay for their local police and the state police– which divert resources into these non local police communities. An annual fee could require municipalities to take responsibility for the services they receive.