A Mahoning Township resident has asked for the township’s police department to share statistics with the public.

Linda Pollock, of Mahoning Drive West, told township supervisors earlier this month that she cuts out different articles from the police departments in West Penn Township, Mahanoy Township and Summit Hill.

“Honestly, with a full-time force, I think this can be in the paper,” Pollock said. “I don’t see why we can’t.”

Pollock added, “I think it would be beneficial for people that say we never see them.

“This would be an answer, if they showed the citations and showed the mileage then we know they are doing their job,” she said. “So, I don’t know who is in charge of the police department.

“It is something to look into. I think it would be beneficial for the people of Mahoning Township to see what our police departments are doing.”

Board Chair Deb McGowan noted that supervisors previously asked township police Chief Audie Mertz to supply stats to be placed in the newspaper, but that hasn’t happened.

Pollock then asked if the board is his boss, to which McGowan said they all are and would again direct Mertz to consider doing so.

“I never see anything from our police department,” Pollock said. “They can make a fortune on 443.”

Supervisor Matthew Wentz then weighed in on the situation.

“I would like for it to be addressed too, and to actually you know feel like the police department is up against something and to have that logged in, you know I feel the same way you do and now for the last three months that you have actually brought something like that up is a good interest in what I think they should do too,” Wentz said. “Like, we should definitely have something in the paper saying what they do and put out to public.”

Pollock said she previously read in the newspaper that the township police chief said the township doesn’t have a full-time police department.

McGowan explained to Pollock that the township does not have 24-hour coverage, as the hours from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. are typically assigned to state police.

Pollock asked how many officers the police department has.

“There is plenty to have enough information that they should be able to put in (the) paper, and we should have enough authority that we should be able to do that too,” Wentz said.

Supervisor Ronald Reeser said he was fine with it as well.

“I don’t see a problem with seeing (it) in the police log of the paper,” Reeser said. “It used to be.”

McGowan said that with Pollock bringing the matter up, the board would direct Mertz to begin to share police stats in the police logs of the newspaper or on their Facebook page.