MACUNGIE, Pa. – The Macungie Borough Council has launched an investigation of the borough’s police department.
The council voted 6-to-1 to initiate the probe during a special meeting at the Macungie Institute Wednesday morning.
Corporal Michael Mullen with the Macungie Police Department says there was an internal investigation conducted by the department, but Borough Council wasn’t happy with the result of the investigation and wants a third party to look into the issue.
Everyone who spoke at the meeting was frustrated with how this is playing out.
First, many people were annoyed the meeting was scheduled for 9 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving.
Several people were also frustrated that more details aren’t being released about what exactly is being investigated.
But the Borough says it’s a personnel matter it can’t discuss.
And an attorney representing the board says they’re just complying with Pennsylvania law by voting to make the board responsible for overseeing investigations.
But Corporal Mullen argues this isn’t strictly about complying with the law.
He believes the Board President, Ron Karboski, has an axe to grind.
“We conducted an investigation on an incident that Councilman Karboski was a complainant in. He was not happy with the end result of that investigation,” Mullen said.
“He reached out to our mayor to open that investigation up, which he did. Our mayor deemed the matter closed. He is not happy with that determination. That’s why we’re here today. That’s why I have a brand new internal policy that puts the borough council in charge of when discipline is implemented, how it’s implemented, who implements it, and what the punishment is.”
We asked Council President Karboski for a comment after the meeting, but he declined.
The only dissenting vote came from Councilwoman Megan Sell. She also declined to comment.
In its vote Wednesday morning, Borough Council named attorney Patrick Harvey as the Special Counsel who will be conducting the third-party investigation into the police department.