Former officers Scott Longdon and Michael Podolec said that growing job security concerns amid an ongoing conflict in the Evans City-Seven Fields Regional Police Department left them with little option but to resign.

“It’s kind of forced the hand of myself and other officers to go elsewhere,” Longdon said. “I’ve been there eight years — 19 total, if you include Evans City. I can’t sit back and wait for someone to decide what my future is, so we’re moving on.”

Two full-time officers and one part-time officer resigned this month, according to Chief Joe McCombs, who is one of the remaining three full-time officers.

Even fully staffed, Evans City-Seven Fields was covering 15 shifts of its 35 shifts in a normal week, according to McCombs.

Tom Smith, administrator for the regional police department, said that state police have been enlisted to assist the department until those roles are filled.

“The public is not going to be without medical or major police coverage for incidents,” Smith said.

According to Smith, the loss of the former officers was part of “a national epidemic” facing police departments.

Longdon, however, said the resignations were a product of years of instability within the regional police commission.

“It’s just a dysfunctional organization,” Longdon said. “I don’t know how else you put it.”

According to Longdon, over 20 full-time and part-time officers have left since the department was established in 2014.

Podolec, one of the three most recent officers to leave, said he left believing the department was going to disband.

“We’ve been told for about the past six months to a year that the police department wasn’t going to exist anymore,” Podolec said. “It was going to shut down, so initially that was my motivation. Just looking for other employment, because I was under the impression I was not going to have a job.”

He said news of the disbandment came to him through his supervisor, Longdon.

Longdon said he had been told “numerous times” from an official that the department would disband by 2024, if not sooner. He also said that he had received emails suggesting that a Seven Fields Council official had recommended withdrawing from the charter.

Smith, also the township manager for Seven Fields, said that the charter between the municipalities was not due to expire until 2025.

“I’m sorry that officer felt he was going to be out of a job, because it’s not true,” Smith said.

Evans City Mayor Dean Zinkhann declined to comment.

“And that’s, again, kind of what led me to, in the past year, looking for other employment, because I hear one thing and then it’s another,” Podolec said. “I’m only four years into my law enforcement career, so obviously, when I’m looking at the next 20 years of my career, that’s not a sustainable outlook.”

Longdon said that the regional police commission only met three out of the required 12 months in the last year “because they can’t get along.”

While Longdon said the commission met in December to “reset,” replacing four members, the group’s January meeting was canceled.

“That leads to a lot of the issues, too,” Podolec said, “because things (pent-up) for months and months at a time and end up not getting addressed, or by the time they do get addressed it’s too late.”

Podolec maintained that these unaddressed issues in the department were also part of the reason the officers left.

“Our contract was up at the end of last year, and currently, we still have not resolved that contract,” Podolec said. “They kind of showed no interest in working on negotiations with that, and, as of (Friday), we have no contract for 2023.”

The contract is being negotiated by the officers’ bargaining unit and the police commission.

While the officers would receive back-pay when the contract is approved, Podolec said their current rates and benefits are operating on last year’s contract.

“The department is not competitive on wages and benefits,” Longdon said. “The departments that surround us are substantially higher in wages than we are, and they have dependent health coverage, which we don’t.”

These issues, Podolec agreed, have left the department short-staffed and stretched thin.

“We’ve been short-staffed almost as long as I’ve been here, with kind of no plans to hire new people, and the people that we do bring in are out pretty quick,” he said. “Looking at the longevity from that standpoint, it’s not sustainable having a short amount of officers.”

All three officers, Podolec said, have found work elsewhere.

The department, according to Smith, already has five applicants for the positions and is in the process of hiring replacements.

“We anticipate hiring two full-time officers,” Smith said. “We’re going to work through this.”