Saturday
July 27, 2024 
At the outset of the May 15 Buckingham Township Board of Supervisors meeting David J. Scirrotto was sworn in as chief of police.
Before Scirrotto took the oath, Lieutenant William Moffett gave a heartfelt tribute to his fellow officers for their support during Moffett’s assumption of command following the resignation of Mike Gallagher last December.
The oath of office was administered by District Magistrate Maggie Snow, in front of an overflow crowd. Supervisors had approved Scirrotto’s appointment at their April meeting.
Scirrotto had been serving as chief of police for Lower Moreland Township in Montgomery County since 2019, culminating 31 years of service in that department. In his introductory remarks, he noted he now lives “about 13 minutes” from his place of employment.
He was understood to have already been seeking a new opportunity when he became aware of the Buckingham opening.
As noted by Moffett in his introduction, Scirrotto’s resume as chief in Lower Moreland included “diversifying sworn and non-sworn staff to include multilingual officers and staff in Spanish, Albanian, Russian and Ukranian, in addition to achieving the highest percentage of female officers at 27 percent through effective recruitment.”
Before serving in Lower Moreland, Scirrotto was a police officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and served in the U.S. Air Force as a security police officer. He also served in several capacities for the Montgomery County SWAT team.
His education includes M.S. degrees in both criminal justice and public administration and a B.S. in criminal justice. He continues to serve as an instructor and coordinator for Montgomery County Community College and Temple University.
Later in the May 15 meeting, supervisors approved a “Settlement Agreement between Buckingham Township and (former police officer) Samantha Devery per recommendation of insurance counsel.”
A civil complaint filed by Devery in federal court was in process around the time of Gallagher’s resignation. It alleged discrimination in the workplace related to her gender and pregnancy, which the township had denied took place.
After their meeting last December, when supervisors approved the Separation Agreement and Release between Gallagher and the township, Supervisors Chair Paul Calderaio said “the chief leaving is the result of him deciding to leave for other opportunities.”
He’d added that Gallagher’s wife had retired and that he wanted to move south. He also noted that Gallagher’s hire seven years ago was to serve a particular action plan that was estimated to take five to seven years to complete, and that a status report on that plan would be provided during the process of hiring a new police chief.
Join our readers whose generous donations are making it possible for you to read our news coverage. Help keep local journalism alive and our community strong. Donate today.