Center for Traffic Safety unveils the winning billboard from 9th annual contest
Two York Catholic 2025 graduates win Center for Traffic Safety’s ninth annual billboard contest, unveiled in Spring Garden Township, Tuesday, May 27, 2025.
As of Sunday morning, Spring Garden Township Police officers now are York County Regional officers.
The municipal department officially became part of the regional outfit at midnight, fully consolidated and patrolling under the same leadership chart and in the same branded vehicles.
York County Regional Police Chief Tim Damon remains chief of the larger department.
York County Regional now has 82 officers — 17 from Spring Garden — and gained around 13,500 residents to police within territory nearly 7 square miles larger by absorbing the township in York Suburban School District that cradles York City and hosts a college, country club and WellSpan York Hospital.
The merger is expected to save Spring Garden Township money, as much as $680,000 from what the township pays for police by 2026, based on a state study.
Spring Garden joins York, Windsor and East Manchester townships as the department’s main members. They fund the officers’ pensions while the department’s other contracted municipalities — the boroughs of Dallastown, Yoe, Jacobus, Spring Grove, Manchester and Mount Wolf — do not.
Township officials started shopping for a regional department around the time George Swartz, longtime Spring Garden police chief, began his retirement transition last year.
York County Regional is leasing Spring Garden’s police headquarters within the municipal building at 340 Tri Hill Road for about $4,600 per month.
Township officials also considered merging with Northern York County Regional.
The county’s latest merger reflects the consolidation pattern of law enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania that began when Northern York County Regional became the state’s first regional department in 1972.
Spring Garden is the 27th of York County’s 72 municipalities to be served by a regional law enforcement agency.
Since then, the county has seen at least five regional police outfits. That number is at three since Northeastern and York Area regionals formed York County Regional and Southwestern Regional disbanded after its member municipalities sought different coverage.
There are 13 municipalities in York County with their own police departments. Eight of them cover their own area, the other five contract to serve collectively nine other municipalities.
Twenty-four municipalities in York County use the Pennsylvania State Police as its police force.
— Reach Mark Walters at mwalters@yorkdispatch.com.
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