Chief Wenters outlines 2025 calls, forensics work and accreditation for regional police
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Summary
Chief Wenters told the Palmyra council the Western Lebanon Regional Police Department handled 9,322 calls for service in 2025, processed 85 devices and about 25.78 terabytes of digital evidence for forensic review, and completed accreditation recertification; the department said much of its workload centers in Palmyra.
Chief Wenters, chief of the Western Lebanon Regional Police Department, told the Palmyra Borough Council that the department handled 9,322 calls for service in 2025, serving a jurisdiction of about 12,589 people with 16 officers. "We had 32 DUI arrests in 2025," he said, and the call load averaged roughly 666 calls per officer.
The chief provided a geographic breakdown of incidents, saying Palmyra accounted for 5,386 calls while Anvil and South Anvil accounted for 3,518 and 413 calls respectively. He described the department's internal organization — commission, chief, two sergeants, detectives, and four squads — and noted accreditation work: the department met roughly 130 best-practice standards and successfully recertified this year.
Wenters emphasized the department's digital-forensics capacity. He said a detective assigned to the FBI child exploitation and human trafficking task force processed 85 pieces of equipment last year (36 cell phones and 49 tablets, computers, or external devices) and handled about 25.78 terabytes of data for analysis. "So we process them. Some of them, we go through and read and look for everything," he said, describing how the unit supports both local investigations and other agencies.
On use-of-force, Wenters said the department reviewed four incidents where force was applied; those reviews involved at least two sergeants and the chief and were judged to be within department policy. He characterized the instances as rare relative to total calls and noted only minor injuries to suspects in the incidents described.
The chief also described the department's public-facing tools, including ScribeWatch and a CrimeWatch portal. He reported roughly 130,058 visits to their page, 4,498,042 recorded actions (clicks) and 2,005 total members, saying the site produced tips and helped the department push information to residents. Wenters told the council the full monthly and year-to-date reports are available on the department's ScribeWatch page for residents to review.
Council members thanked the chief for the briefing; no votes or formal actions followed the presentation. The report provides context about the department's workload, its investigative capabilities and the distribution of incidents across the borough and neighboring areas.
