House lawmaker requests state police presence in Johnstown

State Rep. Frank Burns, D-East Taylor, has asked Gov. Josh Shapiro to establish a Pennsylvania State Police substation in Johnstown as the city deals with crime that Burns said is tied to a surplus of public housing units which have long been offered as temporary residences for people from hundreds of miles outside of Johnstown.

“As the city of Johnstown struggles under the weight of a devastating mix of poverty and crime, fueled by a huge transient public housing population coming in largely from Philadelphia, I am asking for your help to bring things under control by establishing a State Police Substation in the city,” Burns wrote in a June 13 letter to Shapiro.

“I know it s a long shot, but I’m hoping there is something he can do to help,” Burns said Friday.

Whether the process to establish a state police presence in Johnstown would begin with the state police headquarters or legislative action, it would fail without Shapiro’s blessing, he said.

Burns said he urged the Johnstown City Council to supply more support for the Johnstown Police Department years ago, when the city received more than $30 million for COVID-19 relief.

However, the council and administration took a different path in spending those funds.

Johnstown's plan for COVID-19 relief money set

May 12 is now the target date for the City of Johnstown to begin the rollout for using the nearly $31 million it received in American Rescue Plan funds for COVID-19 pandemic relief.

“Everyone who lives here and is a law-abiding citizen can attest to how bad the situation has become,” Burns wrote in his letter to Shapiro.

“It is no coincidence – nor was it a big surprise to us – that after a prisoner escaped from and eluded police in Philadelphia in February, a Fugitive Task Force found and arrested him 200 miles away in Johnstown,” Burns wrote, referring to escaped Philadelphia prisoner Alleem Bordan who was captured in February by U.S. Marshals in Johnstown.

Philadelphia fugitive apprehended in Johnstown

A Philadelphia fugitive was arrested in Dale Borough on Thursday after a multi-agency investigation into his escape, according to a release from United States Marshals Service.

Burns said Johnstown’s relative surplus of public housing is a suspected driver of the city’s poverty and crime rate.

LIVING REALITIES | Johnstown's population decline amplifies the impact of widespread Section 8 housing

Almost 20% of Johnstown’s population lives in public housing or Section 8 rental units.

“In Johnstown, where a relative surplus of public housing is one of the main suspected drivers of a 38.7% poverty rate (more than three times the state rate), and where community fallout from the massive influx of low-income, transient public housing residents has seriously strained the law enforcement system, I believe it is economically fair and morally right for the Commonwealth to create a strong and steady state police presence to augment city police,” Burns wrote.

As of last fall, the Johnstown Police Department had 31 active-duty officers, 10 short of the 41 budgeted.

“This staffing shortage comes as the city battles one of the highest crime rates in the state, where the chance of being the victim of a violent or property crime is 1 in 24,” Burns said in his letter.

Police recruits have more options as departments work to fill vacancies

The recruitment and retention of police officers, along with the options available to cadets, have changed significantly over the past decades.

Johnstown Police Chief Richard Pritchard was out of the office Friday and could not be reached about Burns’ request to Shapiro for a state police presence to augment city police.

“By immersing myself in Johnstown’s neighborhoods and listening to people who live with and fear the problem, I know they would appreciate and feel safer with a state police substation in the city,” Burns said in the letter to Shapiro.

An inquiry to Shapiro’s spokesperson on whether Shapiro was supportive of Burns’ request was not returned Friday.

Russ O’Reilly is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @RussellOReilly.