State police Trooper Clinton Deemer loads up his gear to go out on duty Friday. In Butler County, 36 municipalities get full-time coverage from state police, and 10 get part-time coverage, according to a February 2021 report by the state police.

Slippery Rock recently upped the staffing of its police department, bringing coverage up to “99.9 percent” local officers.

This level of local coverage means an officer is almost always patrolling the area. This gives police better response times, and they can enforce local borough ordinances and be more attentive to traffic violations.

But not all municipalities have their own police departments, and even those that do sometimes need backup. In those cases, state police are the ones who answer the call.

Slippery Rock has four full-time officers and four part-time officers, but the borough may need state police to step in when an officer is ill or on vacation.

“If we are not able to cover a shift,” said Shawn Pugh, borough manager, “911 would know that we don't have an officer for that shift and the state police would respond.”

State police troopers patrol assigned zones that encompass multiple townships and boroughs, including municipalities that don't have their own police departments, those that have part-time local coverage and those that have their own full-time departments.

Read more in Sunday's Butler Eagle.