About the Lebanon City Police Department

      Lebanon's history goes back to 1813 when the county was formed.  The city has undergone a series of changes over the years.  The official population has hovered between twenty five and thirty thousand people in recent years.  The city itself has undergone numerous hardships.  Lebanon once was the home to Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Lebanon Steel Foundry, Cleaverbrooks Boilers and numerous other medium to large business.  Most of these have closed up and moved on leaving many people out of work.  The city has only recently began to recover from these changes.

The primary location for the City Police Department is located in the municipal (City/County Building) at 400 S. 8th St..  The department also runs one satellite office (substation).  It is located in part of the Liberty Fire Company at 9th & Mifflin St.   Officers utilize the substation for followup investigations, complaints, interviews and to help be available and visable to the public in the neighborhood that it is located in.     

The Lebanon City Police Department is comprised of forty seven sworn officers which include the Chief of Police,  Captain of Police,  five Lieutenants and four Sergeants.  The department provides 24 hour, seven day a week coverage and service to the residents of Lebanon.

    The Chief of Police is a hands on position and  is responsible for the day to day operations of the department. The Chief is directly  responsible to the Mayor.   A Captain of  Police is directly under the Chief and works closely with the Chief with regard to the routine operations, decisions, review and numerous other duties including training.  He is also responsible for making numerous routine management decisions in the absence of the Chief.  

    Currently the department is organized into three primary platoons, for identification purposes labeled "A", "B" & "C".  Each platoon has approximately nine officers including a Lieutenant, Sergeant and seven uniformed patrol officers.  Officers assigned within a platoon have permanent days off based on seniority.   Platoons work on a rotating basis changing shifts every two weeks. 

    In addition the department has a   "Support Services" division.  The Support Services division is commanded by Lt. David Gingrich and he has a Sergeant under him.  Support Services performs numerous and diverse duties including accident investigation, VASCAR (speed checks) and backup to the on duty platoon. 

    The city "Criminal Investigation Unit" includes a "Juvenile Detective Bureau". It is manned currently by seven investigators (Detectives) and is supervised by Lt. Steven Collins. 

    The police department maintains a fleet of police cars, including marked and unmarked vehicles.   In the past couple of years they have been primarily the Ford Crown Victoria, with the recent addition of the Chevrolet Impala.   Each of the cruisers are equipped with emergency lights and siren as well as radio communication equipment,  and other emergency equipment (first aid kits, fire extinguishers, etc).  In addition each of the marked cars are equipped with Vascar units utilized for speed enforcement.  (Be careful out there, just about every where in Lebanon the speed limit is 25 MPH). 

       The city of Lebanon is broken down into zones and patrol cars are assigned zones that they are primarily responsible for.  The  zone assignments allow cars to stay in a smaller geographic area and in theory be closer to a potential call, thus decreasing response time.  These "zones" also provide a method of overseeing that areas are not overlapped and that all areas of the city get appropriate coverage.