Tag: Pennsylvania State Police

Pennsylvania State Police Boss Says He Doesn’t Agree with Ex-Secret Service Head on ‘Sloped Roof’ Assessment

Just the News
Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris

Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris’s testimony before Congress on Tuesday resulted in some more information coming out regarding the day of former President Donald Trump’s attempted assassination, but there are still unanswered questions.

Paris told the Homeland Security Committee that he did not agree with former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s assessment about not having an officer on the building the gunman used to attempt to assassinate former President Trump due to a “sloped roof.”

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Trump Gunman Had Michigan School Shooter’s Photo, Foreign Encrypted Apps, FBI Tells Congress

Just the News
Thomas Crooks and Ethan Crumbley (composite image)

While Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle frustrated lawmakers Monday with sparse details about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the FBI has disclosed to Congress that the shooter used three encrypted communications apps ostensibly tied to Germany, Brussels and New Zealand and also possessed an arrest photo of an earlier Michigan school shooter, Just the News has confirmed.

In multiple briefings, FBI leaders told lawmakers that the 20-year-old would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks’ primary cell phone has become an important focal point of the probe, including some 14,000 images that were found on it, according to multiple sources familiar with the briefings. The FBI has not issued an update on their findings to the public since July 14.

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Pennsylvania State Police Interest Surging After College Credit Requirement Axed

The Center Square

Pennsylvania state police applications spiked over the last month after the governor axed the agency’s college credit requirement.

Nearly half of the 1,200 candidates were not eligible before the Aug. 28 announcement. Overall, interest has surged – in the previous half-year hiring period, the agency had received 1,745 applications.

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Pennsylvania State Police Want More Women on the Force as Vacancies Pile Up

The Center Square

In keeping with the governor’s strategy to incentivize residents to pursue work in critically short-staffed essential services, the Pennsylvania State Police has focused its efforts on recruiting more women into the force.

In a meeting with the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Hershey, First Lady Lori Shapiro stressed the importance of a more diverse police force.

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Pennsylvania Lawmaker Proposes Notifying ICE of Illegals Trying to Buy Guns

Bradley Vasoli

A Pennsylvania state lawmaker is urging colleagues to back emerging legislation ensuring illegal aliens who try to get firearms are reported to federal and state authorities. 

State Representative Ryan Mackenzie’s (R-Macungie) measure would direct the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) to inform the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) and the Pennsylvania Attorney General of all such purchase attempts. 

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Pennsylvania State House Members Support State Police Funding Increase; Off-Budget Account Questioned

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania’s House Appropriations Committee members signaled general agreement with  Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro’s budget-increase goals for Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) on Monday, though some related issues remain contentious.

Representatives questioned PSP Commissioner Christopher Paris, Acting Deputy Commissioner of Operations George Bivens and other lead staffers at the agency in preparation for the budget process which lawmakers aim to wrap up by June 30. 

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Pennsylvania House Appropriations Republican: Projected Shapiro Deficits Too Large

Bradley Vasoli

Unlike his fellow Democrat and predecessor Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro hasn’t asked for tax increases as part of his first budget request. But the ranking Republican on the state House Appropriations Committee said on Wednesday that tax hikes likely await Pennsylvanians in a few years if lawmakers don’t pare back Shapiro’s spending proposal. 

“We are facing massive structural deficits,” Representative Seth Grove (R-York) told reporters at the GOP Appropriations Committee Office in Harrisburg. “It’s something that is on our minds here in the General Assembly.”

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Lawmakers Consider Requested 40 Percent Funding Hike for Pennsylvania State Police

Bradley Vasoli

At a Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee hearing Tuesday, representatives discussed the governor’s requested 40-percent state-police funding increase with department officials.

The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) received $629,342,000 this fiscal year. In a budget proposal unveiled last month, Governor Tom Wolf (D) asked the Republican-run General Assembly to fund the agency at $925,599,000 (in combined state and federal dollars). The governor, however, anticipates that PSP funding can be kept flat over the four fiscal years after next year.

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