Freeport hires 3 police officers, still looking for new chief, more part-timers - TribLIVE

Freeport has its own police force again.

Council voted 5-0 at a special meeting Monday night to hire Jodi Greiser of Freeport as a full-time officer and named Chris Fabec of Murrysville the department’s Officer in Charge.

Mayor James Swartz Jr. said he swore in Fabec, who also serves as Gilpin’s police chief, and Gilpin police Cpl. Dalton VanWhy of Harrison as part-timers on Sunday.

Both hires were approved by council, provided they did well in interviews with the personnel committee, mayor and former Chief Matthew Feldmeier on Nov. 2.

However, council did not release the candidates’ names at that time.

“They all did good interviews,” Swartz said.

Feldmeier quit the force after working one day on the job.

Feldmeier was hired to replace Eric Belton, who resigned after six years in Freeport to take a job with Plum police. His last day with the borough was Oct. 29.

Freeport’s only other full-time officer, patrolman Chris Kovacs, resigned to take a job as an officer in South Buffalo Township. His last day was Oct. 28.

Fabec has been with Gilpin the past two years. He also worked as a Tarentum officer and for Carlow University’s police force. His starting Freeport wage is $20 per hour.

VanWhy has been with Gilpin since September 2020. He also worked in Frazer and currently works part-time in East Deer. His starting Freeport wage is $17 per hour.

Greiser works as an officer at Carlow University as well as Allegheny Valley Regional, and was recently hired part-time in Leechburg. Her starting Freeport salary is $21 per hour.

Fabec, VanWhy and Greiser were selected out of 20 candidates with eight earning interviews.

Swartz said the borough received a plethora of applicants after news broke about Freeport not having any officers.

Fabec stopped by Freeport council chambers shortly after Monday’s meeting adjourned and talked about starting in a new department with familiar faces.

“I look forward to it,” Fabec said. “I’ll hopefully be in the car tomorrow. I worked here in EMS a while ago. It was a good town then and I still think it’s a great place to be. Jodi worked for me at Carlow University in 2019.

“I look forward to getting the department back up and running to (the residents’) satisfaction, and we’ll be here whenever they need us.”

Council president Clint Warnick it felt great to have a borough police force and not solely rely on state police coverage as they have been for at least the past several weeks.

“That’s what we were looking for all along,” he said. “We had an obvious setback, but now we’re getting back to where we wanted to be. We’re going to need to eventually hire a chief and some additional part-time employees and we’ll be as good as we’ve been for some time.”

Council discussed increasing pay for part-timers to $19 per hour.

That change may not occur for at least a year because Freeport is still under contract with United Mine Workers Union through December 2022.

Warnick said a pay increase would help attract more candidates and keep qualified officers.

“I would rather have no officers that officers who are subpar,” he said.

Council did approved a memorandum of understanding with the union to make the police chief position a non-union job.

Having a chief be in a union may cause problems should he or she have to discipline other union officers for any improper conduct.

“It’s very uncommon for a chief to be in a union,” Warnick said.

Freeport is still in search of a full-time police chief and a few more part-timers.

Those interested in the jobs can contact the borough office at 724-295-2251.

Michael DiVittorio is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at 412-871-2367, mdivittorio@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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