PA House Appropriations — 2026-03-11

Oh, absolutely.

Would you like to begin with an opening statement, or would you like to commence with questions?

So I have Lieutenant Colonel Chris King, Deputy of Administration and Professional Responsibility, to my far right. I have Major Matthew Nicky, Deputy of Operations, to my immediate right. To my immediate left, Lieutenant Colonel Joanne Reed, Deputy of Staff. And to my far left, Special Assistant Brooke Meade.

Thank you. Air Command Staff. There we go. Colonel, as I'm sure you're well aware, on April 13, 2025, the governor's official residence was firebombed. Thankfully, the Shapiro family was unharmed, but the residence did sustain serious damage. So this attack didn't happen in a vacuum. Have threats of political violence increased in recent years?

And following the attack, was the residence in Harrisburg suitable for the governor and his family to continue to reside in?

So a temporary solution was necessary?

And it's your responsibility as the Pennsylvania State Police to keep the governor safe and his family regardless of the location.

It is.

Is that correct?

And could you share how much securing his residence cost and where that money came from?

That's post-attack.

And without those security upgrades, would you have considered the governor's personal residence a secure location,

And when you implemented these items, you used a job order contracting procurement, also known as procurement process, to purchase the enhanced security measures for both residences.

Yes, sir.

And do you make a habit of questioning DGS or OGC?

Thank you. And one last question on you mentioned the fencing kernel that was purchased by PSP. It's my understanding that it was ultimately not used at the residence. Can you tell me why?

And I just have one follow-up on that, if the chairman is okay. is the fence now in use at the barracks?

Great, thank you so much Colonel

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome, Lieutenant Colonel. I just want to start out with a positive, both my personal support for the state police, the funding, and a specific shout out for the Camp Cadet program. You know, it is a great program. Our kid number seven got to go through that. And learning the oath and, you know, having that experience really helped to shape him. And so I thank you for the continuance of that program. I like to begin in the budget Specifically another area of proposed significant increase is in the transportation line item for new vehicles It was a 20 increase last year This year another 20% increase, so 2.6 more million. So a total of about $15 million going to the vehicle line, Adam. Can you explain the need for this significant increase, the decision-making process, the procurement process? You know, what is driving this large year-over-year increase?

That's great. That's great. Last year I had asked about the possibility of the opportunity for Pennsylvania to begin to upgrade our vehicles to include ballistic protection. You know, the state of Texas has implemented this. I think there are eight to ten states that are also considering it. Philadelphia is now rolling out some ballistic protection on their police guards. Even in Westmoreland County, you know, we're going to be celebrating this coming year our first ballistically protected vehicle. In these upgrades, in your budget documents, I didn't see any mention of ballistic protection. Is that something that we are considering for our officers?

Yeah, that would be great. I think from some numbers that we've seen, you know, it might be about $4,000 for ballistic doors or upgrading could be in that $12,000 to $15,000 for a full ballistic upgrade, trying to incorporate those costs... you know, on top of the $98,000, you know, I understand those, you know, those monies can increase, but it's something that, you know, we look forward to working with you moving forward

Thank the gentleman. Representative Kincaid.

We do inquire of each cadet who is stopping the program. In some cases, they're stopping because of an injury. and if that's the case, we invite them back once they're healed. If it's that they've made a conscious decision to leave, we want to know why, if they'll share that with us. Those are all documented. Those are circulated through the front office. Lieutenant Colonel King takes a look and reviews each of those, and we certainly try to make sure that there is not some systemic issue that is leading to those resignations. That has not been the case with anything that we have found to this point. In terms of our minority hiring, I'm going to turn to Special Assistant Mead here in just a second. I actually think our numbers have been improving. I think the numbers of the recruiting efforts that we've had out there are showing real promise. We have a lot of applicants, and I'll tell you, it's in a challenging environment. You know, we were just talking about the fact that we just lost the corporal and the state police. It's very difficult to go out and sell that profession when periodically in the news, whether it's someone from the state police or a local police agency or somewhere in an adjacent state, those kinds of things happen with far too great frequency. So there are a lot of challenges trying to recruit qualified candidates to come in we are absolutely committed to ensuring that the hiring process is free of any bias that everyone is given an opportunity and encouraged to apply and to successfully complete the Pennsylvania State Police Academy. So if you'd like some current numbers, I'd be happy to have Special Assistant Mead share those.

I've seen that recommendation. We are not taking an official position on it. What I would say is that we are certainly here to enforce the law, and we will do that, whatever it is that you all decide the law should be.

I'm sorry, we'll have to get back to you on the specifics of that telephonic system. What I can tell you is looking at our compliance rates, we're actually far better than the national average. We're at, I think, around 3.4 percent noncompliance. The national average is exceeding 10, almost 11 percent. So I think the things that we are doing are working. Again, I'll have to get back to you on that specific program.

Thank the gentlelady, Representative Mako.

Thank you.

We do.

I think we would be willing to look at how we could do that and it would have to be on a specific case basis You know we do share routinely share information with the Capitol Police with Sergeant-at-Arms, if there is anything that may be a threat to the members of the legislature. I realize that's a little different than the communities that you're talking about. We are very dialed in with the FBI. We work closely with them. In fact, even on this Bucks County case, we were working along with the FBI on the Bucks County piece of that through the Joint Terrorism Task Force and then also through other tactical assets that we have that we make available for those jobs. The challenge is how much of that information can be released, and particularly in a case like that, it's not our investigation. We don't have the lead. While we're certainly contributing to it, we would have to go back and discuss with the FBI what we can and can't release. And that's why I say we'd really have to look at it on a case-by-case basis.

So while we are not working specifically on the immigration issue itself, we have a very robust criminal intelligence program, both field intelligence and then the Pennsylvania Criminal Intelligence Center, State Fusion Center. Our people do an amazing job collecting information on threats, potential threats, entities that may be planning certain things. And that goes back to that joint work that we do with the FBI and Homeland Security investigations as well. We have done a very good job collecting within the confines of the law on domestic threat groups and, again, work closely with the FBI as international threats that have a touch on the Commonwealth are identified. We continue to work closely with them on that and then work back through the fusion center. The FBI and Homeland Security both have analysts assigned to our fusion center and can function in the classified environment. So all of that information is synthesized really into a threat picture for us. And I think I'll give credit to the men and women in our department that do that work. They do an amazing job and really are outstanding eyes and ears for the agency and for the Commonwealth.

using intel and all? We do interact with the National Guard. We have briefings as appropriate, and I have fairly regular communications with the adjutant general, and certainly anything he needs

it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank the gentleman, Representative Salisbury. Thank you, Chairman.

So that Regulation 714 spells out very specifically when they can ask or when they can make contact with ICE. It's a very strict regulation. As I've testified in the Senate, and I would say again here, we are not federal immigration officials. We are not conducting those kinds of investigations or detaining people based on their immigration status. So to your question, there really are very few times where something like that even enters the picture in terms of their investigation. Unless a criminal investigation leads us where that is an important part of the investigation and ultimately prosecution, there is no reason for our people to even ask.

That is correct.

It would be handled as any other violation of our policies or regulations. There would be an internal investigation initiated, and the potential would be there to discipline that trooper.

So we really don't have the financial capacity to be undertaking ICE's work for them, in my opinion.

I know it was put in place during the Wolf administration by a predecessor.

We are.

There is nothing that I can foresee in the future that would cause us to change that.

But why do you feel that it's important to have this policy? Well, again, you know, as I said, we don't, first of all, I don't think the authority is there for us to be doing the administrative work anyway of ICE. But beyond that, we have to be able to interact with all the residents and people passing through, even with the Commonwealth. And so we need them to feel safe in approaching law enforcement and to be able to maintain that kind of an ability for people to approach our officers without fear that that would be one of the first questions that was asked.

example? I think that's certainly a possibility. Okay. And what do you think is realistically

You know, I haven't surveyed the members to see what their personal opinions are any more than I do on any other regulation we have in place. The bottom line is we have a regulation. It's a very paramilitary organization. We expect that if there's a regulation in place, it will be followed. But if it is not, there are consequences.

I think it depends. Again, not from the standpoint of assisting with an administrative immigration raid or seizure. However, if, to use your hypothetical, if we had federal agents being assaulted or some other type of violence occurring, it is our job to also step in and stop the violence.

Thank the gentlelady. Representative Barton.

So very briefly, because of the time constraints, there is a legislative cap on the number of enlisted members of the Pennsylvania State Police that we can employ at any particular time. And so we have to stay within that cap. Even to be able to run cadet classes, we can't anticipate under the current system that we would have a large number of retirements and hire additional cadets anticipating those retirements. We have to wait until they occur and then hire cadets. And so we're constantly behind in trying to fill those spots. In some years, that's been a problem. I'm sorry, it was a problem that we were not able to hire enough cadets. We have seen increases in the number of applicants and the amount of diversity of those applicants. This past year has been very helpful to us, and we're making real progress on that. And the danger for us right now is with the number of cadets we have currently in the academy, we are at a point where we can probably not hire any more than about 75 or so cadets for the planned June class. And unless we have more retirements we couldn hire any of the planned 380 cadets that are included in this budget until after the first of the year when we would expect some retirements

There are positions. So, for example, troopers assigned to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, troopers assigned to gaming enforcement, to the Delaware River Bridge Authority, and to liquor control enforcement are outside of the complement cap. All other troopers count against that cap. Let me ask you this. Have you prepared a complement analysis internally

activities, duties, and coverage? We have. In fact, in our written testimony that we submitted, we provided something that showed all of the additional functions that we have taken on over the last number of years. In total, it took about 400 enlisted members from what would have otherwise been used in a patrol function and out there in the counties patrolling the Commonwealth's highways and communities and has caused us to use them in other places as priorities have dictated. We would really like to get back to where we have that higher number of patrol troopers and And, you know, we think we're in the 300 to 400 range to be able to replace that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank the gentleman, Representative Curry.

It is being used quite extensively. As a matter of fact, the missing endangered person alert is one step, if I can call it, below an AMBER alert. AMBER is reserved for someone who is under 18 and has been abducted. The MEPA can be used for anyone who there's any reason to believe they may be endangered. And so the criteria is very relaxed compared to the AMBER alert. We do use that system a lot. In the past year, we activated it 129 times across the Commonwealth. We advertised it out to law enforcement in the past year. We also included a training block through the Municipal Police Officers Education and Training Commission so that all municipal officers if they weren aware were made aware of it We have good participation from many agencies across the Commonwealth. Now, there are some requests that are denied, but those are typically very few and far between. And the only reason really for a denial is, you know, someone waits two weeks after a person has been missing and has no idea where they might be or suspects that they've run off somewhere. You know, they're a runaway as opposed to missing in another way and may be out of state or whatever. So as long as there is anything that we can reasonably and timely look for, we will activate the MEPA system. We have agreements with PennDOT that we activate the sign boards. You'll see periodically if you're driving, you'll see, you know, looking for a silver Toyota with a registration. Those are all part of that MEPA alert system.

It does.

We do recognize that that's a very serious problem. So this training starts really in the Pennsylvania State Police Academy with our cadets. We have agreements with Penn State Health. We have experts, subject matter experts that come in, and that provide training, and even we do a lot of role-playing and really try to make sure that our new troopers that will be graduating are well-trained. We include training in the mandatory in-service training that we provide to all of our members on an annual basis, and then we also have additional training that we offer. We call them calendar courses, but they're electives that troopers, as well as municipal officers can put in for and receive additional training. But that's frequently a key part of it. And the last thing I'll say is that our use of force experts who work out of training and education are constantly looking at the scenarios, the situations that we encounter, and particularly with the mental health aspect, but with other issues as well, and incorporating that into scenario-based training so that we can constantly improve what we're delivering.

It is.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank the gentlelady, Representative Rigby.

To give you some idea, this past year we had, we appointed 276 so far in the current fiscal year. we don't graduate 276. I think we're on track right now to graduate about 180, either that have already graduated or will graduate, and we anticipate one more clash yet this year. So we're hoping to add to that. We're having, again, better success recruiting, and so I'm very hopeful that we can fill those 380 spots and try to retain as many as we possibly can. In response to another question earlier, I mentioned, you know, we do experience injuries. We have others who simply change their minds and decide that this isn't for them. You know, in the end, we will fill as many of those spots as we possibly can.

It is.

Currently we have just over 200, but again we've got 123 in training right now, so those will count against that. And that goes back to my earlier statement about, you know, that we only have about 70 to 80 spots that we can play with then going forward for the June class and then through the fall.

So we've gotten to the point where the system has matured for state use, and now we're expanding that out. We're doing a couple of things with neighboring states and within the state. With neighboring states, we've now got interoperability with FEMA Region 3, which is kind of everything to the south and D.C. in that area. We've recently introduced interoperability with New Jersey State Police, and we'll have that fully operational within the next few months. and then within the Commonwealth we have 35 counties that we've brought online already that we've installed consoles in those 911 centers. There is an ability now for the 911 center in conjunction with the PSP station to open that line of communication so that you don't have to talk to a dispatcher who then relays the message. They can open that line of communications as needed so that the officers can talk back and forth directly. We have 20 additional counties that we're working on right now. Ultimately, we'd love to have every county on board. It takes an agreement from that county to do it. There is some cost for them. We bear the majority of the cost, but we'd like to get there. We're making good progress, and I'm hopeful over the next year or so we can finish all the counties.

I'll tell you, the real challenge for us has been not only departments that are shutting down but departments that are decreasing. their number of hours of service. So it's much harder to measure that because we don't know, are they now covering two or three shifts a week or are they now covering all but two or three shifts a week? And so when we calculate and we say, look, we've got X number of departments that we provide part-time service for, what we are seeing is a huge increase in the number of hours that we are covering those part-time PDs. Their hours are cutting way back. They're not available on the weekends. They're not available on the overnight hours and so forth. That is where really we're seeing a huge drain. We're seeing a lot of that.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, Pennsylvania State Police. Before I go into my question, I just want to say thank you for your presence. Thank you for your service. We honor and respect everything that you do for this Commonwealth, and we also offer our condolences.

Lieutenant Colonel, during your budget hearing with the Senate, it was disclosed that a restricted revenue account associated with the Pennsylvania Instant Check System recently received a $14.3 million deposit, even though the account historically receives only $2 to $4 million annually.

including whether the funds have now been properly reconciled and transferred to the General Fund?

Great. So what I think I hear you say is that you have established a particular type of mechanism to ensure that this problem would not occur in the future. Is that correct?

Thank you so much.

My questions are regarding the potential legalization of cannabis. So the governor's budget treats recreational marijuana as a potential revenue stream, but I firmly believe that government should never set a goal of profiting from addiction or impairment. When the state builds a system around an intoxicating drug, the potential revenue for some may be inviting, but the costs to society are far greater and far harder to measure. Those real costs show up in drug-impaired driving, mental health crises, addiction treatment needs, and increased burdens on law enforcement. And when those problems arise, it's going to be the state police and local law enforcement who are expected to respond, investigate, and enforce the law. So while the administration may focus on projected tax revenue, my concern today is the rural world impact on public safety and the men and women who will be responsible for enforcing these laws. With that in mind, I have several questions. The governor's proposal includes roughly $2.5 million in initial funding and about $1.25 million annually thereafter for the state police related to adult use cannabis enforcement and expungement activities. Commissioner, were the state police consulted in advance about whether that level of funding is actually sufficient to enforce a newly legalized cannabis industry and address the likeliness of an increased marijuana-impaired driving incidence?

You actually just answered my next two questions that highlighted the complexity of testing for marijuana with respect to drivers as opposed to alcohol. So the proposal envisions PSP assisting with the enforcement of the legal cannabis industry. Do you anticipate needing additional personnel or specialized enforcement units, similar to how the state police work with the Liquor Control Board on alcohol enforcement?

If this, I think the projections were to have it legal in the budget address, it was a prediction or a projection of legalizing it in January of 2027. does that give PSP nearly enough time to set up what they need to set up, what you need to set up, to be able to enforce it in either of those two models?

Have there been discussions with federal authorities regarding how state enforcement will operate in a system where the product remains federally prohibited?

Have you consulted with law enforcement agencies in other states that have already legalized the recreational marijuana to gain an understanding of the operational challenges that they're experiencing?

Okay. And out of that, what do you anticipate would be your biggest challenge?

Thank you. We're both out of time. I just really want to express my concern that the Commonwealth is grossly underestimating the real cost of legalizing marijuana. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Thank you, Colonel, and the rest of the leadership team up there. Again, my deepest condolences on the loss of the state trooper.

Our prayers are with his family. I want to talk to you about an issue that I brought up last year, an issue that I have championed and a bill that just dropped to try to right-size the Pennsylvania State Police budget. And by that, I mean, you know, we talked earlier about how this proposal uses about $250 billion from the Motor License Fund to help fund PSP operations. But there are limits to how far that funding goes, aren't there? It can only be used for highway operations and things like that.

Yes. Okay. So with that as a backdrop, the Pennsylvania State Police does have responsibility for police coverage for those municipalities that do not have their own police force. Isn't that correct?

So there are ostensibly criminal investigations taking place using Pennsylvania State Police Troopers that are not funded. by, you know, by either the general fund or the motor license fund. You can't access those funds to pay for the troopers who are doing that sort of work, that investigative work, you know, investigating things like robbery, things like assault, a bar fight, things like that, in which a municipal police force has not stood up, right?

And we realize that, you know, here in the district that I represent, my residents pay about $250 per capita per resident to have the Lower Paxson Township Police, the Pembroke Police Department and the Susquehanna Township Police Department. So we're paying for our own private police departments here in my district. But our tax dollars also go to fund the Pennsylvania State Police. What my initiative would do is implement a small fee on those municipalities that get Pennsylvania State Police coverage. And the reason for me doing so is to ensure that you have the funds necessary to hire the troopers to actually cover and be able to respond in a timely manner to the places that need police coverage now. You know, and we're not just talking about, you know, certainly there are some small communities, but there are communities of upwards of 30,000 to 40,000 people who do not have their own municipal police force and are relying on state police coverage that you have to cover as well. And so my aim is to try to infuse more dollars into your operations. If we were able to do that, and there was one estimate that was, I think it was about in 2017 or 2018, there was one estimate that it cost about $600 million of state police hours back then to cover what you would need. If we could get a fee for those folks and, say, infuse $300 million or $400 million, what more could the Pennsylvania State Police do with funding like that?

Well, no, I think there's a way that we can do it. I'm just trying to ensure a...

Thank you so much.

Thanks, gentlemen. Representative Moustala.

it. Can you just tell us how you've improved that? So the PICS system has improved in a number of ways, but in terms of reliability, to give you some idea, in the past year, it was down a total of just over 14 hours, not in one amount, and actually through no fault of the system. It was because either other state systems were unavailable that were required checks in order to be able to complete the check, or the NICS system was down, which we have to rely on. And I think in terms of that 14 hours, like eight or nine of those hours was the NICS system, and the remainder were state systems. So there really wasn't anything we could do to improve that. We have tried to make improvements in terms of encouraging FFLs to start using the electronic means of query. We see real efficiency in that. We have provided a number of educational opportunities. We've sent people out to educate them on how to move in the direction of that electronic system if they choose to. It's certainly not required. and we work with them to try and ensure compliance so that our desire is to have the voluntary compliance with various rules associated with this and to make the PICS system work as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Did you say NICS?

No, I mean NICS is one of the checks that PICS utilizes, but PICS does a lot more than NICS, So it picks up a number of things like additional PFAs that don't qualify to be included in the NICS system, some mental health commitment records that don't qualify for the NICS system, and it also allows us to do some real-time notifications. For example, in the past year, we had 86 people arrested that, believe it or not, showed up, tried to buy a firearm, and had an active arrest warrant for them while they were trying to make that purchase. They were detained by the FFL surreptitiously until an officer could get there. But it also allows us to make referrals when someone falsifies that form. Under the NICS process, there is no referral like that. There are very few and far between. There are a number of other benefits. I don't want to take all your time.

Some do.

Do they?

Yes.

Well, that goes back to the question that I just mentioned. So when this budget was submitted, that $15 million had not been found. That $15 million is now being transferred into the firearms system and will be available for us to use now and in the future to supplement the money PIX is underfunded It underfunded every year and so we have had to take money from GGO to fund it in the past So then do you not need that $4.3 million increase then?

We could use that $15 million, and we'll either use it now or we'll use it next fiscal year. Okay.

So that could be taken out then?

It could be.

And I think that is all I had.

The PIC system?

So we have trained analysts that monitor that. We have a supervisor that works with them, and we do have enlisted personnel in the center as well. So it's a combination of all of the above, but the people are trained to be able to field questions. So many of these checks are done in an automated fashion. So far more than 60 percent, there's no interaction with an operator at all. The approval is granted.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, gentlelady, Representative Van Zell.

I'll tell you, that was one of the big ones that has really helped us. we're changing some things with recruiting to not just go to a job fair, for example, and set up a table. We're really starting and trying to start building interest at the high school level. We've got a number of programs. Camp Cadet was mentioned earlier that is active in every county around the Commonwealth. And then from Camp Cadet, we have other programs like Hill Impact and Law and Leadership that really follows the age groups up through to the point where they're eligible to apply and become a police officer. We've had a fair amount of success, both applicants joining the state police and local police departments. It's really for us about now trying to start out younger and generate that interest and then take other approaches like through the use of social media and try and work with building up that applicant pool. I mentioned earlier that we've seen an increase. I mean, to go back just a year or two, we were down as low as high 2,000s to 3,000 applicants in a year, which is record low for us. And we're now exceeding 5, approaching 6,000 applicants, and we see that number growing. So, you know, we are still, we have not changed our standards for hiring. Don't plan to change our standards for hiring. We want the best and the brightest, and we're really just trying to increase that pool and get people who want to be state troopers.

number of positions there are by contract there are a few assignments and the executive protection detail is another good example where we may or may not do a posting just to generate some idea of the interest but ultimately we can select people for that assignment. Once they are in that assignment, it remains the commissioner's discretion whether a promotion is offered. It's not just a promotion, though, that we randomly decide that that person gets promoted. They test like everyone else, and there is a promotion list that is generated based on written tests and oral scores, and those people are ranked. When we get to that person on the list, we can, if we choose, offer them a promotion in place. There are a number of specialty assignments across the department. It's not just BIPs that we do that. For example, if we have a helicopter pilot that's a trooper and we've invested a lot of time and money into bringing them really up to speed, we may offer them promotion to the rank of corporal and keep them right where they're at. Computer crime would be another good example and so forth. a lot of different areas where that occurs. And again, it's done only when they reach their time based on test scores.

said, you know. No, we've tried to work with PennDOT a lot on education. We've done a number of public service announcements. You know, we do engage in some enforcement with it as well. It's a dangerous situation, I agree, not only for the tow truck operators, for our people, for fire and EMS that are out there along the roads. You know, to your point, there are really only a couple of choices, enforcement and, you know, continuing education that we can try to get people, convince them of

guys all for what you do. I appreciate you guys. Thank you. Thank the gentleman, Representative Kale. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Colonel, for being here today. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that to give a shout out to your Beaver Barracks, which is about a mile, mile and a half from where I live.

Well as I indicated I mean we finally seeing some progress and some improvement And so those overall numbers are coming up the diversity numbers within those that pool of candidates are coming up as well I happy with the progress that we made We have a long way to go. I still remember the days of getting 12,000 or 14,000 applicants in a testing process. I'd love to be back there again, and maybe we will one day. But I'm happy with the progress that we're seeing right now. I'd like to get those numbers a little higher and always be in a position where we can hire well-qualified applicants to join our ranks.

Currently for this year, we're between 5,000 and 6,000, which, again, I mentioned that we were at a low point just a few years ago of high 2,000s to 3,000s. So we've nearly doubled where we were just a couple of years ago, and it seems to be trending up each year. How many positions are we looking to fill from those? Well, we're asking for budgeting of enough to fill 380 positions.

I've thrown out the figure of $300 to $400. I mean, I think that would put us in a good place. The thing that I want to make sure we clear up about any change in the complement cap, we can't just go hire troopers independent of whatever the legislature wants going forward. We have to be able to fund them. And so all the cap does is just gives us a little more flexibility in how we use those funds and the timing of the funds. So, for example, with the number of vacancies we have right now, we may have to wait until after the first of the year, which will be the next large retirement as we go into January of 27. Instead of being able to anticipate and use that funding if it's allocated for those 380 cadets, we would have to wait until January when the positions are already open, and then we would be able to hire. and it's going to take months and months to fill, train, and get those applicants out there, put them through a field training program. And in the end, you're looking at almost a year until we have a well-trained, fully qualified trooper. Lifting that cap allows us to work within the funding constraints that you all approve and anticipate those vacancies and work hard to put more troopers on the road out there where they're really needed in the communities.

It does not.

Over the years, we've looked and we've tried to convert a number of them. Now, there are at times union concerns, but I think we've been able to work through the vast majority of those. And so we have civilianized pretty much everything that we can where it really doesn't require a fully trained law enforcement officer, an armed officer.

Thank you, sir.

And I want to begin with my sincere thanks for your service and my deepest sympathies for your most recent loss. We appreciate you being here today. So I want to begin with a quote from a state trooper who said, PA is a hotspot for human trafficking, which is very concerning to me. Okay. I know that the PA Coalition Against Rape and the PA District Attorneys Association formed a human trafficking response team here in Harrisburg. And I'm just interested to know if there have been any developments from that.

But the one area of increase, and perhaps that is human trafficking, and perhaps that's because of the increased emphasis. Maybe it's because of the increased prevalence. But I think we're seeing and detecting more of it as we build these partnerships and build out the specialized investigative capabilities within the agency. Well, that's a huge concern. Obviously, with all the events coming up in Pennsylvania, the PA-250, the NFL draft. I can assure you we will have our investigators working all of those events. That's part of the planning process for those, World Cup and others. So you do have a specific strategy to prevent and prosecute these?

Good to know. Thank you. another service you provide is in school safety and assessment which was a priority of act 44 in 2018 your testimony highlights that you have 18 full-time troopers assigned to the risk and vulnerability assessment team and you've conducted 376 assessments in 2025 do the staffing levels and number of assessments meet the requirements that are outlined in the act you know i think they

Yeah, so I'm glad you bring that up because your report that 376 assessments were completed last year, of that, how many assessment requests did you receive? And is there still a backlog of requests?

Oh wow But again as we look at that backlog there are a significant number of those schools that have had a recent assessment And so, you know, again, I think that's where we need to do a better job of kind of parsing those districts out, making sure we're doing a good job of getting to those that have not had an assessment. Well, I think, as I'm sure you agree, they're vitally important to keep our children safe in our schools. So, again, thank you for all you do.

Thank you, gentlelady, Representative Alsemer.

Thank you.

So we've done a number of things. An RVAT assessment is now a standard part of our design process as we move into a new facility where we have facilities that we expect to be in for some time. And I'll use Blooming Grove as an example. And as you're all too familiar with, I'm sure back in 2014 we had the attack there. We have gone back and retrofitted those stations with a number of different security measures, whether to harden doors, windows, camera systems, and so forth, to better enable the station to be protected and to defend against a similar type of situation from occurring. The balance for us is we're also not trying to build fortresses. We want them to be welcoming to the public and that the public has free access to come and go from the lobby and so forth. And, you know, so again, we try to strike that balance. But those enhancements are largely being done as we build new stations and, again, being retrofitted as necessary. But we are looking at that at every station.

So the capital requests come in in terms of the state-owned facilities. We also have a number of leased facilities. So we don't use the capital funds there. We go back and we do a lease amendment with the landlord, and then we're able to look at fencing, for example, or some of the other upgrades that I talked about. And so we have begun to put fencing around a number of stations, again, where it makes sense to do it. In terms of the capital process, where you will see those requests, primarily troop headquarters, their own facilities. And so as we build those, one of our next requests, I believe, is for the Hazelton troop headquarters.

We do use our own RVAT teams, and no, I have not considered an outside team. I consider our people to be very skilled and talented individuals. What I would tell you is that, you know, when they present their findings or recommendations, there's a menu there. And so we have to look at those, and that's where we strike that balance. And so I don't see a real benefit to going to an outside firm. I don't believe there is anything more comprehensive that they would supply us than what we can get from our own people. It's simply that, again, we're trying to strike that balance. We could put a 12-foot high fence with razor wire around the top and a sally port and fully armored doors and windows and everything else, but we certainly wouldn't be able to invite the public in very easily. So we try to strike that balance. I think we're doing a good job of it. We can't prevent every threat and still have the stations accessible, but again, we're striking that balance.

We are not. PSP is not a work-from-home agency. Our people all report into the office. So for us, nothing has changed and that space is still needed.

Thank you, gentlemen. Representative Riker.

I have to tell you that's really not one of the aspects that I've ever really explored with the colonels from the other states. my focus has been more on enforcement, you know, highway safety issues and other types of criminal.

Walther PDP 9mm.

We had a Sig Sauer P227 for a number of years and then switched now to the Walther.

Because, I mean, Walther is a very, very nice pistol. So we had a group that was chaired by our research and development team but they worked hand with representatives from the field from training and education from the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association We got a lot of input narrowed looked at a lot of different firearms talked to other states or agencies that were carrying some of those firearms, tested those firearms extensively, and then once we had narrowed that down, included some field trials with the firearms where We brought people in and provided them some training on it and then put them through some shooting courses to see what their opinion was. And ultimately, that was the firearm that was arrived at and meets our needs.

Yeah, and it's probably closer to two years as I think about it. And they're completely phased in. We did it in fairly short order. through one qualification cycle. And so they're out there. There was a transition as well. We went to a red dot optic on the top of it. And, you know, again, that was all part of the transition process.

You know, it depends. It depends on the item that we're selecting. Something like the firearm, we do have the expertise in-house to be able to look at any number of different firearms. And, you know, we considered a wide range of manufacturers. We had narrowed it down to the 9mm so that we could focus in on that. And then really it was about, you know, again, a wide range of testing and opinions that led us. There are other cases where if we don't know what's out there or we need some other expertise, we certainly can follow various other procurement methods to go about that.

Thank you.

Well, you know, I suppose that's a way of saying it. But, yes, it would be working in conjunction with the governor's office and with the legislature based on the level of funding allocated to then be able to set whatever those numbers are and the pace of that hiring so that, you know, again, if there's an allotment of funding that's made specifically to hire cadets, we can decide and we use it sooner rather than later to anticipate vacancies that are upcoming.

Three to 400, yes, sir.

In that ballpark.

The budget request was put in well before that.

No, sir. We can use that money. If that money is appropriated, we will simply wait for next year and use the money then. But if you want to remove the $4 million, we can use that $15 million to backfill it and pay for some of the other funding because it does cost more than that to run PICS.

I have it here. I think it's around $13 to $14 million.

Can you give us a quick update on that?

So that's coming along quite nicely. It's on time. We, a few months ago, moved into the new stables. That was the first part of the facility to come online. The Bureau of Emergency and Special Operations is nearly complete, and so in the next several months we expect to move in there. The main academy building is really taking shape. If you get a chance to drive over through the Hershey area, it's now very prominently featured as you drive out Hershey Park Drive. It will be ready for occupancy hopefully by late October and we would be ready to move into that once we move into that the existing Academy will be torn down an additional building will take place there but we will maintain full operational status throughout and and you know and then increase capabilities as we replace the old facility with other structures there but what's the

I'm sorry?

Well, it's going to be torn down. Just torn down. And building will take place over top of that space.

Yes, sir. There will be an indoor shooting range and an outdoor training village that will be built on that same site and connected to the new Maine Academy.

I do think that's going to be a help. I mean, if anyone, you know, we bring them in for tours and everything. I mean, it's in many ways constructed like an old Army barracks, you know, a minimum two per room. Some of them are squad bays that can have as many as six people in a room, you know, group bathrooms. It was built in the late 1950s and you know in the style of an Army barracks And so I really think that going to assist us in recruiting and bringing people in The new facility will dorms will resemble something more like a college dorm room individual rooms, and just a much more professional training facility. But not only, you know, have the ability to house them in a much nicer place, the classrooms will present opportunities for realism, building courtroom in one of the classrooms, for example. and then they're all adjacent to an indoor training village so that we can very quickly take the cadets from something they've learned academically in the classroom down the hall and into a training village and put it to practice. So we're not waiting until we have a week of scenarios or something where we take them outside and we try to simulate things. Very realistic opportunities to train in, both in the academy and on the grounds outside.

Well, again, the Maine Academy by October and then early 2028 for everything.

Thank you.

Thank you.