The Athens Borough Police Department is a small, but progressive law enforcement agency. The department has embraced a community-oriented approach to policing so that it may better fulfill its law enforcement and service obligations. The department has been a proven innovator in this regard. Among its benchmarks - the department was the first municipal police agency in the Valley and the Northern Tier region of Pennsylvania to establish a School Resource Officer program which allows one of our uniformed patrol officers to be permanently stationed at our local high school; the first police agency in Bradford County to train and equip its officers with an Automated External Defibrillator device to resuscitate victims of cardiac arrest; the first in the county to establish a voluntary post-traumatic counseling program for citizens and officers alike utilizing the services of a specially trained chaplain; and the first in the county to establish a web site on the internet.

The department has also developed and instituted a unique part-time program that helps address traditional small agency shortfalls relative to the lack of functional specialization. Under this program, the department's officers - all assigned full-time to patrol - divide their routine patrol duties with certain specialty duties on an as needed basis. If an incoming case requires special investigative expertise, the officer specializing in that affected functional area may, depending on the complexity of the case, be pulled away entirely from his or her normal patrol activities to take over and investigate the case on a temporary full-time basis.

The officers attend basic and later advanced police training courses to acquire and enhance the knowledge and skills necessary to work in their particular areas of expertise. As a result, the department - despite its small size - is able to employ some of the latest advances in law enforcement technology and investigative techniques. Perhaps just as importantly, the program also helps to alleviate boredom and address the lack of opportunity for vertical advancement, problems universal to most small police agencies. Here officers who otherwise would work solely in patrol are afforded the opportunity to specialize, train, practice and retain horizontal responsibility and authority in areas of police work that in larger agencies are traditionally reserved for detectives in specialty units.

The Athens Borough Police Department is well equipped for its size. Its officers carry quality firearms, operate late model police vehicles and use digital cameras and laptop computers in their police work. Connected by a local area network, all department and borough offices are equipped with state of the art personal computers, peripherals and software. The Athens Borough Municipal Building, including the entire police wing, was extensively remodeled in 1997. The building was first constructed in 1972.

AED Dedication Ceremony, May 27, 1999.