Acting further on long-running complaints from residents about various forms of abuse from tractor-trailer trucks, the Richland Township Police Department has hired a certified police officer specialist to assist with “motor carrier enforcement,” as well as perform other duties.
The hiring of Todd Garloff, a sergeant in the Emmaus Police Department until his retirement at the end of this month, was approved by the board of supervisors at their April 8 public meeting as a part-time addition to the Richland force. His special focus on motor carrier enforcement in Emmaus will be a primary carryover for Richland.
After the meeting, Police Chief Rich Ficco elaborated that Garloff will be “helping with enforcement of our motor vehicle laws, and will also be able to inspect the trucks, per the federal motor carrier rules.”
After hiring Garloff, supervisors held oath of office ceremonies, led by District Judge Lisa J. Gaier, Esq., for two patrolmen being promoted to corporal. Each will now serve as a street supervisor for a squad of four officers, where they had previously been the senior officers.
Corporal Matthew J. Mergen, who joined the force in 1999, is one of the department’s field training officers (FTO’s), and also helps as a defensive tactics instructor and car-seat technician, providing installations for infants and children. Corporal Matthew R. Lawhead, originally hired in 2002, is also an FTO. In addition, he is the department’s lead CPR instructor, and is a Negotiator with the Central Bucks Special Response Team.
Their oaths of office included “upholding, obeying and enforcing the law without consideration to a person’s race, color, sex, religious creed, sexual orientation, age, national origin, ancestry, handicap or disability.” They were provided with paper copies of the oaths for signature in quadruplicate.
During his regular monthly report, Ficco announced that the department’s 12th annual Drug Takeback will be held at headquarters on California Road from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 27. The statewide event, supplementing the daily opportunity in Richland via the drop box at headquarters, is designed to keep unused prescription drugs out of the wrong hands. Bucks County was noted as having the highest tonnage collected among counties in the state for each of the last five years.
