History

The East Lampeter Township Police Department was originally founded in 1956 to provide protection during Halloween referred to as “Halloween Policing”.  On February 13, 1967 at the request of East Lampeter Township residents, the Board of Supervisors increased the “Halloween Policing” into a part time Police Department.  Henry Bielmyer was appointed the first part time Chief of Police, and two part time patrol officers were added to his staff. 

In 1972 the Board of Supervisors appointed Jacob A. Glick Jr. as Chief of Police, and the Department was expanded to a full time organization with five full time/part time Officers. With the growth of the community and an agreement to provide police services to Upper Leacock Township in 1981 the police department grew steadily. Jacob A. Glick Jr. retired as Chief of Police in 1995.

Dale Jerchau was appointed Chief of Police in 1995, and retired as Chief of Police in 2006 when John Bowman was appointed Chief of Police by the Board of Supervisors.  In 2018, Stephen Zerbe became the fourth full-time police chief.  Currently, the department consists of forty-two (42) sworn Officers and six (6) civilian support staff.

The department has continued in an upswing of growth.  We have become a "premier" accredited police department.  A bicycle patrol was added.  We now provide two (2) school resource officers (SRO), dedicated to the Conestoga Valley School District community.  We moved to our current facility in 2005, housing a large squad room and separate detective office along with a dedicated forensic evidence room, evidence storage, polygraph room, records archive, cell block, and interview rooms.

The East Lampeter Township Police Department is a community police organization that cares about its citizens and provides a wide variety of services to the 25,927 residents of East Lampeter Township and Upper Leacock Township.  Under the provisions of an intergovernmental cooperative agreement to provide police services to Upper Leacock Township.

The police department patrols the 38 square miles of the two townships; in 2022 we answered 116,117 calls for for service.  The police department is organized into three divisions:

  • Administrative Support
  • Detective Division
  • Patrol Division