HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Gov.-elect Ed Rendell on Thursday tapped an 18-year veteran of the state police to command the agency.
\nMaj. Jeffrey B. Miller, 39, currently the state police director of legislative affairs, was nominated to the position of state police commissioner.
\nIf confirmed by the Senate, Miller will command 4,275 enlisted troopers and 1,624 civilian employees responsible for primary police coverage for about 85 percent of the state\u2019s territory. The department has an annual budget of $632 million.
\nThe agency\u2019s main duties are to provide police services for municipalities that do not have their own police departments and to patrol interstate highways. The state police also provide specialized help, such as laboratory services and investigative assistance, for all law enforcement agencies in the state.
\nMiller would replace Col. Paul J. Evanko, who served for eight years as police commissioner under former Gov. Tom Ridge and Gov. Mark S. Schweiker. Evanko plans to retire when his term expires Jan. 21, the day Rendell is sworn into office.
\n\u201cJeff brings vision and administrative know-how to the state police at a time when I will be asking them to do more than ever to protect people in our communities throughout Pennsylvania,\u201d Rendell said in a statement. \u201cAchieving that goal will take a strong leader who is willing to innovate and bring about positive change.\u201d
\nThe Harrisburg native, who will make about $109,000 a year if confirmed, said his top priority will be the homeland security efforts started under the Schweiker administration and continuing under Rendell.
\n\u201cI would like to see us continue to build out our homeland security initiative so that we can better mesh and integrate with our partners, our sister state agencies … as well as the municipal police agencies that we work very closely with and the governor\u2019s Office of Homeland Security,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThere has to be a better integration of the intelligence information that we receive, how we disseminate that information and the preparations we make as an agency with regard to our emergency response.\u201d
\nMiller said he planned to continue with a technology effort that puts computers in patrol cars in order to reduce troopers\u2019 paperwork time and keep them on the street longer.
\nHe also wants to implement a system similar to one operating in New York City, in which decision-making power is given to the lowest level of street commanders who are in turn held responsible for measurable results in the reduction of crime.
\n\u201cMy job is to provide direction for the department,\u201d Miller said. \u201cMy job is to ensure that we are all on the same page and that we\u2019re working very hard to achieve measurable success.\u201d
\nMiller is a former station commander in the central Pennsylvania communities of Schuylkill Haven and Harrisburg and a former commander of criminal investigations in Philadelphia. He received letters of recommendation from the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as from House Republican Leader John M. Perzel of Philadelphia and Rep. Mike Veon, the Democratic whip.
\nPerzel said Miller had \u201cwell-rounded experience in all state police operations, including patrol, criminal, investigation, procurement, personnel and policy functions.\u201d
\nLarry Frankel, the legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union\u2019s Pennsylvania chapter, said he found Miller reasonable to work with. He also said Miller was willing to look into one of the ACLU\u2019s biggest issues with the state police \u2014 racial profiling, the alleged singling out of minority drivers for traffic stops and drug searches.
\n\u201cWhen we had our differences, we could talk about it and we could work up a compromise,\u201d Frankel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Gov.-elect Ed Rendell on Thursday tapped an 18-year veteran of the state police to command the agency. Maj. Jeffrey B. Miller, 39, currently the state police director of legislative affairs, was nominated to the position of state police commissioner. If confirmed by the Senate, Miller will command 4,275 enlisted troopers and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}