MASONTOWNS, Pa. — Masontown’s police department has sat quiet and empty since Monday, when the borough council voted to disband the department effective immediately — a decision that the Fayette County district attorney now says may be reversed.
Within the last hour, the district attorney told Channel 11 that the council is expected to vote to reverse the decision, calling the initial action a possible violation of Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act.
Police Chief Thomas O’Bardo said he and his officers were laid off the same day the vote happened.
“They laid us off that evening. I had to pull my officer in off the road and send him home,” O’Bardo said.
Masontown’s department includes two full-time officers and four to six part-time officers, O’Bardo said. Since the vote on Monday, Pennsylvania State Police have been handling calls in the borough.
O’Bardo said losing the local department can have immediate impacts on response times and community policing.
“Having a local police department gets you a response time of one to three minutes. You get more of a hometown interaction,” he said. “State police cover a much larger area — response times are longer, and they’re already strapped for people.”
In 2018, a gunman walked into the magistrate’s office and opened fire, shooting four people. Authorities said a Masontown police officer who was nearby responded within moments and shot and killed the suspect.
Former Fayette County prosecutor Christina Demarco-Breeden, who was in the courtroom that day, said the police presence was crucial.
“We barricaded children and adults in a bathroom. It was chaotic — there was so much uncertainty,” Demarco-Breeden said. “Had there not been a police presence that day, there absolutely would have been lives lost.”
DeMarco-Breeden said she was devastated to learn the borough could be without its own police department.
“It’s just devastating that this community could be without a police force, especially in light of what happened back in 2018,” she said.
O’Bardo said the department’s budget has not changed and called the council vote sudden and unnecessary. He said citizens, officers and the district attorney have all spoken out against it.
After a meeting with borough leaders on Thursday, O’Bardo said he is hopeful a vote could put officers back on duty as soon as this weekend.
“It’s my understanding my officers should be back to work Saturday after five p.m. It’s not set in stone — but that was my understanding leaving that meeting,” he said.
For now, state police will continue responding in Masontown while borough leaders prepare for the expected vote.
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