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County redefines detective jobs
NEW CASTLE, Pa.
Lawrence County redefined two former county detective jobs Tuesday in order to step up prosecution of animal abuse and to stop the flow of drugs in the county.
The County Salary Board agreed unanimously Tuesday to take a vacant assistant-county- detective position in Lawrence County District Attorney Joshua Lamancusa’s office and redesignate it as a county detective/humane officer to investigate animal abuse and neglect. Jerry McCarthy, a South New Castle borough police officer, will assume the $31,327-per-year position Feb. 1.
Officials said the action fills a longtime need in the county for criminal investigation of animal cases, a job that previously has fallen to local police departments, which have little time to devote to them.
The humane officer’s duties will include canvassing for unlicensed dogs, investigating and prosecuting complaints of abuse or neglect and coordinating services with local animal-relief agencies.
The officer will not investigate nuisance or pest animals. He will be uniformed, drive a marked car and will carry a gun. A toll-free number will be obtained soon and publicized for residents to use for animal-abuse complaints, Lamancusa said.
The salary board also redesignated the former special-county-detective position as county detective/director of drug task force. The position formerly was filled by Ryan King, who resigned in September, officials said. In October, Lamancusa filled the position with Andy Petyak, a former DEA agent with 23 years’ experience at the same salary, $31,327, as the humane officer. The job also is a union position with fringe benefits.
Lamancusa said Petyak’s hiring is part of an effort to revitalize a county drug task force, made up of all the county’s municipalities, to investigate drug crime in Lawrence County. He said the task force has begun advertising a toll-free number, 855-564-6116, which residents are urged to call anonymously to report suspected drug activity.
During the past several months, his office has been getting paperwork in place to involve all the county’s police departments, and this process is almost complete.
He said that 95 percent of the crime in the county is drug-related and that he expects the task force and the special-investigation units, which Petyak will head, to make a difference.