Police to fill in for township

The township has had a couple of high-profile criminal investigations in recent years.

STAFF REPORT

NEWTON — For the first time in many years, Newton Township is operating without its own police department.

Township trustees expect to come to an agreement today with either the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department or city of Newton Falls to provide police protection.

Trustee Mark Spletzer said the board of trustees voted Monday to eliminate the department immediately, though Tom Thompson, the township’s part-time police chief, will remain on the job until the township reaches an agreement for new coverage.

The department operated with about six or eight part-time officers, Spletzer said.

Whether the coverage comes from the sheriff or Newton Falls, the cost will be about $49,000 — the amount raised by the township’s police levy, Spletzer said.

Sheriff Thomas Altiere has proposed having a deputy patrol the township 40 hours per week at that cost. Thompson is likely to have Newton Falls’ proposal today, Spletzer said.

Problems with the local economy and the trustees’ inability to get passage of a police levy in recent years are the main reasons for eliminating the department, Spletzer said.

“We just plain don’t have the money to operate it properly,” he said. Township voters turned down a 2.75-mill levy request in November 2005.

“The economy stinks right now, and we’ve tried to put levies on, and they have failed,” he said.

Spletzer said he doesn’t feel Newton Township has a large amount of crime, even though “every community has its issues.”

In December 2005, a Youngstown man, Jermaine McKinney, killed two women in a Newton Township home. McKinney was eventually sentenced to life in prison without parole for the crimes.

The sheriff’s department headed up the investigation with assistance from a variety of state and local investigators.

The sheriff’s department also conducted an investigation after a volunteer Newton Township police officer, Tom Colosimo, reported being shot while on duty July 7, 2008.

The sheriff’s department currently provides contracted police officers in Mecca Township 20 hours per week and is negotiating with Johnston Township to provide 20 hours per week of protection, said Don Guarino, the department’s chief of operations.