Eastern Regional Mon Valley Police Department will begin patrolling Braddock next week

BRADDOCK, Pa. — Braddock will soon be patrolled by the Eastern Regional Mon Valley Police Department. Borough leaders say it’ll make neighborhoods safer.

Not all Braddock council members were on board to join the ERMV Police Department, but the vote passed Tuesday night. The borough is now the fourth police agency to join the force after talks began almost a year ago.

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The department already serves North Braddock, Rankin and East Pittsburgh.

Some Braddock community members say they’ll feel better about the change once the nine full-time officers on the joint force take the time to get to know them.

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“If you have people that know the community, officers, they know the parents,” said Milton Alston of Braddock. “They know their children and sometimes just communication with the officers saves some problems instead of increase them.”

Others believe the borough should have tried harder to build up its own police force.

“Our kids were safe,” one mother said. “Our kids were safe. This regional is going to be...I understand that.”

There are only two Braddock Police officers on the entire force. Both are part-time and neither plans on joining the regional force.

“We wish them the best. They served Braddock well for the last year,” said Braddock Borough Manager Lou Ransom Jr. “The big problem with building our own police force is that we only paid $18 per hour for our part-time police force.”

Borough leaders said joining the regional police force will speed up response times and save taxpayers money in the long run.

“It’s hard to recruit officers when you have a police department right down the street that’s paying so much more than we can, and we did want to avoid raising taxes on our residents,” Ransom Jr. said.

The regional police department will start covering Braddock next week. They’re headquartered in North Braddock, which is about two minutes away from the borough municipal building.

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