Slatington Mayor Jeralyn Walters-Shoch led a ceremony swearing in the borough’s new Chief of Police, Donald Long, at the Slatington Municipal Building on Saturday.

Members of the borough council and various law enforcement officers attended, along with Chief Long’s family.

Long grew up in the Slatington area, and shared that his lifelong goal was to be a Pennsylvania State Police trooper, a job he held for 29 years, working at the Bethlehem barracks before retiring.

“I loved doing that for 29 years,” he shared. “I think this is a great way to further my career in my retirement; not completely retired, but to work with these guys here and make my community a better place.”

Long’s main goal for the Slatington Police Department is to make the police more visible to the community.

“I want us to be more community oriented; I want to be more visible, I want them to see us more downtown; to get out and walk the beat and get to meet people. I just want to be more visible; make connections, especially with the kids. We have a lot of kids that walk to school, and I want us to be a good role model for the kids, to get them more excited and maybe learn more about law enforcement.”

Slatington currently has five full time and several part time officers. Chief Long will be looking to fill some vacancies within the department.

“I’m really excited to get started,” Long concluded. “We have a really good police department here. We want to get out there, get to know the community, make them feel safe, knowing they can trust us.”