The Upper Southampton Police Department consists of 22 full-time sworn police officers and three administrative personnel. Staffing includes a police chief, lieutenant, two detectives, four patrol sergeants, and 14 patrol officers. The Police Department has special operations including the Tamanend Park Patrol, bicycle patrol in the business district and park areas, a crime prevention unit, and a highway safety unit. Chief David Schultz has been on the job for more than 44 years with the last 17 in his current position.
Several officers from the department also participate in the South-Central Emergency Response Team (S.E.R.T.). The team is designed for emergency responses to tactical situations which include hostage situations, barricaded subjects and high-risk warrant services. The officers perform several roles ranging from tactical operators to crisis negotiators.
Some officers also participate with the Bucks County Major Incident Response Team (M.I.RT.) This team, which has representatives from nearly every police department in Bucks County, is trained to respond to major incidents within Bucks County. One of the most recent incidents responded to was to provide extra security during the tremendous floods in Yardley and New Hope.
The detectives, as well as a few officers, are sworn as special Bucks County Detectives. They perform narcotic investigations throughout the County with emphasis on their jurisdiction and assist other agencies with their investigations.
Upper Southampton Township is a community of slightly less than seven square miles located north of the city of Philadelphia, with a population of just under 20,000 and a considerably larger transient population. The need to enforce the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Upper Southampton township, and to uphold the Constitution of the United States, is a common procedure of law enforcement agencies and is a requirement subscribed to by Upper Southampton Police Department.
The delivery of police services to a community is a unique and complex understanding. It requires police officers who possess a high degree of stability, sound judgment, physical and moral courage, fidelity and personal integrity. The public, similarly, expects high standards from its police department that wields considerable power over its citizenry, power that is carefully circumscribed by state and federal law, and ultimately, by the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights. Our power to arrest, investigate, and seize, constitutes a substantial public trust. We can help insure that we respect that trust by exemplary performance at all times.
To this end, the philosophy of the Upper Southampton Township Police Department shall consist of the principles and values which guide the performance of the department's law enforcement officers based upon ethics, experience, the law, and the interest and desires of the community. Our law enforcement officers' fundamental duty is to protect mankind, to safeguard lives and property, to protect the innocent from deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and peaceful against violence and disorder, to respect the Constitutional Rights of all men to liberty, equality and justice without malice towards race, creed or religious origins.