Should Whitehall retain its police department?

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The entrance to the Whitehall Police Station.

By Matthew Saari

Should the village of Whitehall continue having its own police department?

It’s a controversial question that has quickly become a hot topic for residents after trustee George Armstrong broached the topic following his taking office.

Now residents will have the opportunity of having their opinions heard on the matter as resident David Molenaar will be going door-to-door, survey in hand, to gauge the interest of village voters on the question.

“It’s an exercise in democracy,” Molenaar said. “The police force has been a hot topic for decades – it’s never been a public discussion; it’s a repressed issue.”

Molenaar, who was also responsible for a 2015 door-to-door survey focused on getting a grocery in Whitehall, has been a longtime advocate of dissolving the Whitehall Police Department.

In April of last year, Molenaar sent The Whitehall Times a letter explaining why the village should look at eliminating the police department, with his focus primarily being on the sizeable portion of the village budget the police department requires.

“I sat on that letter for a year,” he said, adding he was finally moved to action following “The Great Dismay of our 2018-2019 budget.”

 

This is only a preview of the story published in the Whitehall Times. To read the full story, pick up a print copy of this week’s paper at the newsstand or read it online here.