Lansford Borough continues to lose full-time police officers.

And a lack of applicants to fill the positions has them looking to state police and neighboring towns for help.

“We’re having a very hard time getting police applicants,” said Mayor Michele Bartek.

Three officers have resigned from the department in the last six months. Council just received word that another plans to follow them.

There have been no qualified applicants to fill the positions.

With the current force of four full-time officers, including the police chief, the borough is struggling to provide 24-hour police coverage.

Borough officials have reached out to see if state troopers could help cover overnight calls. But Councilman John Turcmanovich said the Pennsylvania State Police are also short on manpower during the overnight hours. He said it’s unlikely they would respond for minor complaints.

“They won’t come in for barking dogs, parking complaints, noisy neighbors, it better be a very serious crime before they respond, if they’re not tied up with something else,” Turcmanovich said.

Officers are in favor of working together with neighboring departments to provide coverage for the area.

Forming a regional police department takes years, but Turcmanovich said there could be operations to work together if the towns support it.

“The police officers want some kind of joint operation. Whether it’s a shared service, regionalization. The officers are in favor of it,” he said.

Bartek brought several ideas to council at their monthly meeting last week: use websites like Indeed, put more information about compensation in the job listings, and waive the $40 application fee for officers.

Turcmanovich said that he would consider suspending the application fee, but warned that the borough will have to pay more to cover the cost of testing applicants.

“I’m just trying to look at all angles to possibly get applicants,” Bartek said.