{"id":126507,"date":"2026-03-01T04:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/126507\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T04:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:02:14","slug":"quakertown-police-chief-scott-mcelree-on-leave-amid-protest-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/126507\/","title":{"rendered":"Quakertown Police Chief Scott McElree on leave amid protest investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">QUAKERTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) &#8212; The police chief in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, is on leave amid an investigation into a<a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/6abc.com\/post\/tensions-high-quakertown-school-board-meeting-clash-police-during-protest\/18655911\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> student protest that turned violent.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The borough solicitor confirms that <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/6abc.com\/post\/calls-grow-quakertown-police-chiefs-resignation-protest-confrontation\/18641945\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Quakertown Police Chief Scott McElree<\/a> &#8211; who also serves as the borough&#8217;s city manager &#8211; is currently on workers&#8217; compensation leave.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">His leave comes as outrage grows over the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/6abc.com\/post\/quakertown-students-facing-aggravated-assault-charges-following-clash-police-chief-scott-mcelree\/18646061\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">arrests of five teenagers following a clash<\/a> during an anti-ICE protest one week ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">RELATED | <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/6abc.com\/post\/tensions-high-quakertown-school-board-meeting-clash-police-during-protest\/18655911\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tensions high at Quakertown School Board meeting after clash with police during protest<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Video captured by bystanders appears to show McElree in plain clothes confronting students and putting one teen in a chokehold.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">There is continued fallout with calls for the chief to resign and criticism over how the Quakertown Community School District handled the protest and the arrests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Quakertown police initially said some students engaged in &#8220;disruptive behavior&#8221; during the walkout, including hitting and kicking cars and blocking traffic. Students, however, countered that some of the altercations stemmed from harassment by drivers, including those in trucks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">The police department, borough council and district attorney&#8217;s office have declined to comment further until the investigation is complete.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QUAKERTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) &#8212; The police chief in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, is on leave amid an investigation into a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59058,28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-126507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-59058","9":"tag-pennsylvania","10":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","11":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}