Going To the Chapel?

Doylestown Township and other Central Bucks municipalities have been plagued by burglaries since November.

Each of those towns and townships have police officers trying to crack the case. In reality, they might all be looking for the same guy - a likelihood that isn't lost on Dennis McCauley.

"Criminals don’t care about municipal borders," the retired cop said Thursday. "If we’ve got someone breaking into cars in Doylestown Township, they’re probably doing it in downtown Doylestown and other places nearby.

"So you might have several different officers from those departments all chasing the same guy. In a larger, regional department, that could be one detective’s case."

That detective could pull together information in the case more effectively and efficiently than often can be done across multiple departments, McCauley said.

Making more efficient use of police resources is one of the leading reasons Doylestown Borough and Township and New Britain Borough are moving ahead with the idea of merging their police forces.

Doylestown's Borough Council will consider joining the proposed at its next meeting on Feb. 28. On Wednesday, its four-member public safety committee unanimously recommended moving ahead with the merger.

Whether the new department would include all four original municipalities, though, remains to be seen.

While , and both Doylestown Borough and Township are leaning that way, Warwick Township still has not acted.

That leaves the others wondering.

"You can’t make someone get married if they don’t want to do it," McCauley said Thursday. The Doylestown councilman is chairman of the borough's public safety committee.

"If they don’t want to, just say so, so we can press forward," he said, "but I really would like to see them participate. I think it’s a stronger agency with them involved."

Warwick officials previously have questioned whether the cost savings cited in a state study actually would be achieved, especially when the cost of a new headquarters building is taken into account.

Doylestown Township Police Chief Stephen White supports the merger, saying it makes more efficient use of tax dollars. The township had to cancel public meetings on the merger because of bad weather, but they are expected to be rescheduled.

"We should know soon whether the township has given its approval," McCauley said. "And then we’ll have to pause and see who’s on board.

"From an economic standpoint, there’s never been a better time to consolidate police services," he said. "From a community standpoint, this improves the quality of policing. It lets you handle your day-to-day problems but also target larger issues more effectively."