Politics & Government

Decision Expected on Colonial Alliance Police RFP Soon

Members from the seven-town shared services group met Thursday to discuss the awarding of the contract for a feasibility study on police consolidation.

Officials from the seven-town Colonial Alliance held a closed-door meeting Thursday to discuss next steps in the awarding of a contract for a police consolidation feasibility study.

Police chiefs were invited to attend the meeting, according to sources, and the results of the discussion are expected to be released in a joint announcement from the Colonial Alliance member communities: Collingswood, Haddonfield, Haddon Township, Oaklyn, Mt. Ephraim, and Audubon.

Haddon Heights, an alliance member, already has withdrawn from the process.

Further details were not immediately available.

Three companies bid on the job back in August:

The RFP calls for a four-month timeline for the completion of the study from the date any contract is awarded. 

The stated goal of the request for proposals is “increasing law enforcement administrative efficiency without interfering with overriding public safety concerns, while reducing redundancy of services amongst agencies.”

Find out what's happening in Collingswoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

It is not meant "to combine police departments,” Collingswood Mayor James Maley said at the July 2013 meeting of the Collingswood borough commissioners, when the study was announced. 

The potential of a merger drew some criticism from one police chief and a Haddon Heights councilman

Find out what's happening in Collingswoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Part of the challenge the RFP will handle involves the replacement of several municipal police chiefs, whose higher-salaried leadership positions have long been a focus of cost-cutting initiatives in Colonial Alliance communities

Collingswood has already signed agreements to share code enforcement officials and other labor as part of the Colonial Alliance


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