Doylestown Township Police Chief Reflects on 'Great Career'

One night in the mid-1970s, Doylestown Township Patrolman Stephen White responded to a burglar alarm at a pharmacy in the Kings Plaza shopping center (now Doylestown Pointe Plaza) at Easton and Almshouse roads.

White, the only police officer on duty in the township, spotted two burglars inside the store. He radioed for backup, but the nearest available unit was in Warminster. Pointing his revolver at the suspects through the plate glass window, White anxiously waited 10 minutes until a Warminster police officer arrived to help him take the duo into custody.

"You always had to think of your own safety," said White, since only one officer per shift patrolled the entire 16-square-mile township.

White, who has guided the department as chief for the past 24 years, is retiring in March after 38 years on the force. Except for a 14-month stint with the U.S. Capitol Police in Washington right out of college, the 62-year-old White has spent his entire law enforcement career in Doylestown Township.

During his tenure, the police department expanded from five officers (including the chief) to 20 officers, as the township's population more than doubled from about 8,000 to nearly 18,000.

White's professional accomplishments have extended well beyond the township. Just to name a few, he has served as president of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association and the Police Chiefs Association of Bucks County, on the executive committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and as a member of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

In 1999, he was inducted into the Pennsylvania Police Hall of Fame for his "exceptional and meritorious performance in the police and law enforcement profession," according to the citation.

"Steve is, in my estimation, if not the best chief of police around here, then one of the best," said Supervisor Vice Chairman Thomas Scarborough, a board member since 1996.

"He's developed a wonderful police department. He gets the job done and has a way of getting people to do the right thing," Scarborough said. "We're very fortunate to have had him for that many years. I hate to see him leave."

Barbara Lyons, a supervisor for nearly 10 years and current chairman, said, "It goes without saying he's probably one of the best chiefs of police in the country. I think the whole township has been elevated by his standing in national and international police associations."

She added, "He has created a very well-run, very organized, high-level police department."

Changes in policing

White, who grew up in Philadelphia and graduated in 1972 from St. Joseph's University in the city, has law enforcement in his blood. His paternal grandfather, an uncle and three cousins were members of the Philadelphia Police Department.

He said police work has come a long way since he joined the township department in 1974.

"When I started, they gave me a gun and a uniform, patted me on the back and gave me a car and a map," White said in a recent interview. He took his patrol car (one of two in the department) home at night to his Doylestown apartment and was required to respond to calls in the middle of the night, without overtime.

"You were really doing everything yourself," White said. "You had to handle anything from a dog complaint to a homicide."

Police officers carried a six-shot revolver and communicated on a two-way radio in the patrol car. They had no laptop computers, cell phones, pagers, bulletproof vests, Tasers or other high-tech equipment.

"If you sit in the front seat of our patrol cars today, it looks like a command center," White said. For example, officers now can check license plate numbers of suspicious vehicles instantly on their in-car computer, instead of radioing them to a county dispatcher and waiting for a reply.

After he had been on the force two months, White took an 11-week training course at the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Collegeville. Promoted to sergeant in 1975, White served as acting chief in 1976-77 until the supervisors hired a new chief, Robert T. Cobb, who headed a much larger urban department in New Jersey.

Cobb immediately identified White as his potential successor and promoted him to the newly created position of lieutenant in 1978.

"He told me, 'I promise - whether I'm here one, five or 10 years - I'm going to teach you to take my job every day I'm here,'" White recalled.

As part of his grooming for leadership, White attended and graduated from the prestigious FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va. in 1979, the first municipal police officer from Central and Upper Bucks to do so.

White said he not only learned from the courses, but made lasting friendships and contacts from among the students drawn from nearly every state as well as foreign countries and federal law enforcement agencies.

Being prepared

Those contacts proved useful during an incident in the early 1980s, when FBI agents arrested a suspect at gunpoint along Turk Road in Edison, but wouldn't tell township police what was going on.

After White said he knew the head of the regional FBI field office and would call him at home, the agency informed White the suspect was a member of a left-wing domestic terrorist group that had stored a cache of dynamite in a nearby residential garage.

While township police evacuated the neighborhood and closed off Route 611, the Philadelphia bomb squad removed the highly explosive crystallized dynamite. Police were told not to use their portable radios because a signal could set off the dynamite.

"Who would have thought a national terrorist group would be in Doylestown Township?" White says today. "You'd better be attentive no matter what size community you're in."

The township has relatively few violent crimes (there have been five homicides in 38 years), but White said police officers cannot become complacent and have to be prepared for any situation.

White learned this the hard way while still a lieutenant. He and Officer Frank "Bucky" Dunlap, wearing civilian clothes, were due to appear in Bucks County Court one Monday morning. Although departmental policy required off-duty officers to carry their gun, extra ammunition and handcuffs, White did not have any of that with him.

As they approached the courthouse in their unmarked police car, the officers heard a radio transmission that a defendant on trial for murder had just escaped from sheriff's deputies. The man ran past them and headed north on Main Street. The officers pursued the escapee in their car, caught up with him, jumped out and forced the man to the ground.

Neither officer had brought handcuffs, so Dunlap ran to get some from sheriff's deputies. Without a gun, White pressed a knuckle against the escapee's back and held him down until Dunlap returned with cuffs a couple of minutes later.

Needless to say, White made sure he carried his gun and handcuffs while off duty from then on.

Mentoring police officers

White, who became chief in January 1988 after Cobb resigned, said one of his biggest responsibilities has been to make sure the department hires officers who not only are capable but have the desire to do more than just answer service calls. The first female officer was hired in August 1988.

"I've always had the philosophy that the most junior police officer on the street needs to be the chief of police" and take the initiative, White said. Officers should be proactive in trying to prevent crime, rather than being reactive after a crime occurs.

For example, he said, if there is a problem with juveniles hanging out at a particular location, an officer should do more than just disperse them. He or she should find out why the place is a hangout and seek to eliminate the cause.

"You need to give them direction to do the job, but trust them to do the job without looking over their shoulders," White said. "If they don't do the job you have to discipline them. The hardest part of leadership is disciplining and removing people."

As chief, White recommended to the supervisors the firing of several officers for serious infractions, but they were the exceptions.

White is proud that many of the 30 or so officers who passed through the department during his tenure left to advance their careers, including three who became municipal police chiefs, four who became FBI agents and seven who attended the FBI National Academy.

David Mettin, chief of the Pennridge Regional Police Department, joined the Doylestown Township force in 1987 as a patrolman and had risen to sergeant when he was appointed to the Pennridge post in 2002.

"I grew up under Steve White," Mettin said. "One of Steve's biggest things was when you're out on the street you represent the Doylestown Township police force. Your decision is his decision."

Mettin said his 15 years serving under White prepared him for becoming chief in Pennridge, which polices East and West Rockhill townships.

"For me, as a young officer, I thought, 'He's really piling on a lot of work.' But it was great grooming for me. He's a mentor to you. He's fantastic," Mettin said.

Regional police department?

White has long advocated the creation of a regional police department in Central Bucks, both to improve the level of police services and to use tax dollars more effectively. In today's tough economic climate, Doylestown township and borough and several other municipalities are giving the idea serious consideration.

The nine police departments in the Central Bucks School District now cost a total of $25 million a year, and that amount only will increase as salaries, benefits and operating expenses keep rising, according to White.

"We're not going to be able to afford it. We need to do a much better job of using resources efficiently," White said. He pointed out that most of the 42 municipal police departments in Bucks County have fewer than 25 officers, and that 75 percent of the 1,210 police departments in Pennsylvania have 10 or fewer officers.

"Bigger is not always better, but in this case it has to be better. The fragmentation of running small departments has to give the advantage to the criminal," the chief said.

When White steps down, the supervisors are expected to name Lt. Dean Logan as acting chief. White said he has applied for an unspecified job in public safety outside the township.

He will continue his commitment to running, which has included organizing and participating in numerous 5K races over the years. In 2003, he received the Training Zone Sports Annual Achievement Award for "diligent and tireless efforts to advance the sport of running in Bucks County."

White lives in Doylestown with his wife of 39 years, Janeen. They have two children, Shawn, 36; and Michelle, 31

As he looks back, White said he has no regrets about spending his career in Doylestown Township, which he called a "forward-thinking municipality."

"I'm very grateful for the board of supervisors to have given me the opportunity. It's been a great career involved with really high-quality people," he said.