Keep Masontown Police: the case against disbanding

Town hall talking points

Town hall

Saturday, November 14, 2026, 4:00 PM

Final council vote

Tuesday, November 24, 2026

What is proposed

An ordinance to dissolve the Masontown Police Department (2 full-time and 4 to 6 part-time officers) and rely on the Pennsylvania State Police

1. Speed: the chief puts local response at 1 to 3 minutes. The State Police station at Lemont Furnace is about 17 road miles from the borough building, and the chief estimates State Police response at 30 to 40 minutes.
2. Crime is real here: Masontown's reported violent crime rate was above the state rate in both 2024 (416 vs 251 per 100,000) and 2025 (320 vs 229), per FBI data.
3. Our officers close cases: every violent offense the department reported in 2024 and 2025 was cleared, against 53 to 57 percent statewide. Property crime clearance ran 67 to 74 percent, against about 24 percent statewide.
4. It is not an expensive department: about $485,000 a year works out to roughly $148 per resident, about half the 2023 state average of $285 for a municipal department.
5. Troopers are already stretched: 210 vacancies statewide, 83 percent of Fayette County's land already on State Police only, plus Uniontown overnights since December 2025 and Everson since September 2026.
6. We would lose services the State Police do not provide: local ordinances, parking, and code enforcement, and a known local officer.
7. We could lose money too: the borough would stop qualifying for its share of State Police traffic fines, and a pending bill (HB 2284) would bill State Police-only towns per resident.
8. Towns that tried it came back: German Township next door rebuilt its department in 2017, and its officer helped stop the 2018 shooting at the Masontown magistrate's office.
9. The ask: table the ordinance, release the January 2026 response-time records, and study a contract or regional option first.

Who polices Fayette County today

Masontown is outlined. Everson is drawn as State Police because its department was suspended in September 2026, after this layer was last updated. Masontown would become the largest borough in the county relying only on the State Police: its 3,270 residents outnumber the largest current State Police-only borough, Fairchance (1,879).

1. Response times

The drive estimate is an OpenStreetMap routing estimate; a trooper on patrol may be closer or farther. The state's own Joint State Government Commission reported in June 2026 that as local departments close, troopers patrol larger areas and “can frequently be spread thin or have longer response times.”

2. Crime, arrests, and calls

Masontown PD made 58 arrests in 2024 and 39 in 2025. Preliminary 2026 data through August shows 55 arrests, 27 violent offenses, and 31 property offenses. Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, agency PA0260500, refreshed October 2026.

• Counts are small, so rates swing from year to year; property crime runs below the state rate.
• Masontown's reporting was incomplete in 2021 to 2023, so those years are left out.
• Incidents the State Police handle inside the borough are counted under the State Police, not Masontown PD.
• Calls for service are not published anywhere; the department's monthly reports to council would show them.

“We have every type of crime that a major city has in our borough. We have homicides down to the smallest internet cryptocurrency cases.”

Chief Thomas O'Barto, KDKA, January 2026

3. Cost, the stated reason, and lost services

Police cost per resident per year. State averages are from DCED; the Masontown figure divides the budget council cited by the 2020 population.

Police budget

About $485,000 a year (council president, January 2026)

Borough property tax

5.9264 mills, most of it going to police; the rest of the Albert Gallatin district averages 2.02 mills

Coverage funded

15 of the 21 weekly shifts needed for round-the-clock coverage; State Police Uniontown covers the rest

Stated goals

Cut 2027 property taxes 50 to 60 percent, eventually abolish them, and pay down about $3.9 million in authority and sewage debt

“We're spending $485,000. I want results. ... I don't feel $485,000 worth of value, and two traffic citations were written.”

Council President John Stoffa, Herald-Standard and WTAE, January 2026

“This was not about money. Don't delude yourself to say it was, because it was funded, we have a surplus, we were moving forward.”

Chief Thomas O'Barto, WPXI, January 10, 2026

This is council's second try in 2026. The January layoff vote (6 to 1) was reversed 6 to 0 five days later after more than 60 residents packed the chamber and the District Attorney raised Sunshine Act concerns. On November 10, council advanced a dissolution ordinance over the District Attorney's objection.

Services the State Police do not provide

• Local ordinances: the State Police do not enforce them (Center for Rural Pennsylvania study; Shickshinny officials, 2014).
• Parking: troopers do not write local parking tickets (TribLIVE, citing a regionalization researcher).
• Code problems: German Township restarted its department partly to enforce ordinances on junk cars, high grass, and neglected properties.
• Community policing: officers who know the town (“we know who they call the bad eggs,” the chief told WTAE) and back up German Township under Masontown's mutual-aid ordinance.

4. State Police workload

The State Police do not publish how many troopers work out of the Uniontown station or how many are on a shift. In 2013 the state Office of Open Records ruled, on a request about this same Lemont Furnace barracks, that the number of troopers assigned there must be released; at the time the agency acknowledged 16 vacancies there. A new Right-to-Know request can get the current figure.

“We anticipate having a large number of retirements at the beginning of next year, and we cannot fill those positions fast enough.”

PSP Lt. Col. Christopher King, August 2026

5. Towns that tried it

6. Alternatives to disbanding

• Contract with a neighbor, as Fayette City does with Washington Township and South Connellsville with Connellsville.
  • Masontown already has a 1990 mutual-aid ordinance with German Township, Uniontown, and Connellsville.
• Join or form a regional department. Southwest Regional already serves Belle Vernon and Newell.
  • DCED put regional departments at $204 per resident in 2023, about 30% below stand-alone departments.
• Ask DCED for a free regionalization feasibility study through its Governor's Center for Local Government Services.
  • Call 888-223-6837 or email RA-DCEDPublicSafety@pa.gov.
• PCCD Regional Policing Assistance Program: up to $200,000 to form a regional department, or $100,000 to join one.
  • Round 2 deadline January 7, 2027; Round 3 April 8, 2027, if funds remain.
• Reduce cost without dissolving: Councilwoman Cochrane suggested a smaller force and a smaller tax cut, or a ballot question.

7. Ripple effects

• Traffic fine revenue: State law shares State Police traffic fines with a town only if it has under 3,000 people or at least 40 hours a week of local police. With 3,270 residents and no police, Masontown would no longer qualify (42 Pa.C.S. 3571; PennDOT).
• A possible new bill: HB 2284 (Rep. Fleming, in committee since March 12, 2026) would charge State Police-only towns a per-resident fee. A town Masontown's size that keeps at least 80 hours of local patrol a week would be exempt. Earlier versions were proposed under Governors Ridge and Wolf.
• Local fines: citations written by borough officers bring revenue the State Police would not replace. The amount is not public.

No reliable source was found linking the loss of a local police department to homeowners insurance rates, property values, or business decisions in Pennsylvania, so this report makes no claim about them.

Data gaps and records requests

Sources

1. Leaders, residents discuss whether to dissolve Masontown Police Department — WPXI, Nov 10, 2026
2. Masontown council to consider laying off entire police force — Herald-Standard, Jan 7, 2026
3. Masontown council reverses police layoffs — Herald-Standard, Jan 12, 2026
4. Masontown council votes to put police back to work — WPXI, Jan 10, 2026
5. Future of local police department uncertain after council votes to disband it — WPXI, Jan 2026
6. Masontown council members vote to layoff entire police force — CBS Pittsburgh (KDKA), Jan 2026
7. Masontown council restores police force — CBS Pittsburgh (KDKA), Jan 2026
8. Masontown council votes to reinstate police department — WTAE, Jan 2026
9. Masontown agency data (ORI PA0260500) — FBI Crime Data Explorer, Refreshed Oct 15, 2026
10. Final Report: Recruitment and Retention of Law Enforcement (SR 94) — Joint State Government Commission, June 23, 2026
11. Pa. state police are covering more municipalities than ever — Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Aug 7, 2026
12. Policy Committee hearing on law enforcement workforce (210 vacancies) — PA House Republican Caucus, Aug 20, 2026
13. PSP testimony on retention and recruitment — Pennsylvania State Police, Aug 19, 2026
14. Uniontown police department in crisis; State Police cover midnight shift — CBS Pittsburgh (KDKA)
15. Uniontown council praises departing police chief — Herald-Standard, Dec 22, 2025
16. Everson Borough Police Department suspended — WPXI, Sept 17, 2026
17. Everson council votes to secure property, records after suspending police — Herald-Standard, Sept 24, 2026
18. Pa. Rep wins open records fight with State Police (Lemont Furnace barracks) — LRIS, via Associated Press, Aug 30, 2013
19. As PA police departments regionalize, questions arise about gains, losses — City & State PA, Mar 31, 2025
20. Higher response times in East Pittsburgh after police department disbanded — WTAE, Feb 26, 2019
21. New police department in German Township ready to roll — Herald-Standard, Feb 1, 2017
22. Responders to Masontown shooting honored — Observer-Reporter, Oct 11, 2018
23. Back on beat: Boswell to reestablish police department — WJAC, July 1, 2021
24. Shickshinny officials vote to reinstate police — Citizens' Voice, Nov 6, 2014
25. Disbanding local police is common in Pa. (Abbottstown) — WITF / PA Post, June 24, 2020
26. An Examination of Pennsylvania State Police Coverage of Municipalities — Center for Rural Pennsylvania, Oct 2012
27. Southwest Regional Police Department adds to patrol area — TribLIVE archive
28. State Police fines allocation — PennDOT
29. 42 Pa.C.S. 3571, Commonwealth portion of fines — PA General Assembly
30. House Bill 2284 (State Police coverage fee) — PA General Assembly, Mar 12, 2026
31. 2026-27 Regional Policing Assistance Program — PCCD, July 22, 2026
32. Police Services and regionalization help — PA DCED
33. Chapter A146: Intermunicipal Police Cooperation — Borough of Masontown code
34. Non-emergency police contacts (part-time departments backed by PSP) — Fayette County
35. Police Jurisdictions map — PCCD, Updated Aug 28, 2026
36. Fayette County municipal boundaries — PASDA, Feb 2026