Erie City Council PAL and Community Policing Study Session - August 31, 2026
Erie City Council PAL and Community Policing Study Session - August 31, 2026
This study session, held by the Erie City Council on August 31, 2026, was requested by council members as the city prepared for budget sessions in September, October, and November. No agenda or minutes were provided with the raw transcript, so this summary is based solely on the meeting transcript. Dr. Titus opened the session, and presenters from the Erie Police Department and city leadership reviewed the Erie Police Athletic League (PAL)'s history, community impact, funding, and how it fits into broader community policing.
Discussion Items
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PAL history and scope (Captain Lennox): PAL was revived after a 40-year hiatus (last active in 1985), with talks beginning in 2015 under former Chief Rainey Bowers; Dr. Horton was an original board member. It began at Piper Burley with about 35 kids and expanded after a successful first year. The PAL summer camp at a major university was described as a national first for a PAL chapter, with about 65 kids attending. By 2026, PAL operates in 29 locations with over 2,000 children, offers six summer camps, and is present in every Erie elementary school and high school, with some participants from Iroquois and Harbor Creek. Captain Lennox estimated that 90% of older participants ended up at Erie High or Collegiate Academy. The program runs year-round, 365 days a year, with school-year sessions Monday through Thursday that include homework enrichment, structured team-building games, recreation, dinner, and a mandatory 30-minute group discussion on life skills, anger management, conflict resolution, and bullying. PAL tracks academics quarterly, uses field trips as incentives, partners with Premier Education for prevention programming, and reported very few criminal-justice incidents among participating youth.
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Community impact (Officer Antoine Fields): Officer Fields said PAL serves over 2,000 kids in collaboration with 29 schools and community centers, with school district teachers assigned to help with after-school homework. He emphasized that success is measured by personal growth and transformation, not awards. He cited recognition from Governor Shapiro and the county's top youth drug and alcohol prevention designation. PAL also conducts career fairs, held its first women's police career expo in April, and continues supporting graduates, including a recent call from a graduate now in the Air Force. He described PAL as a way to help youth imagine futures in law enforcement and to recruit a diverse police force.
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Funding structure (Deputy Chief Janice): PAL has three main funding sources. First, a 501(c)(3) board, separate from the city, raises money through grants, donations, and fundraisers such as the PAL Ball; it pays for educational field trips, transportation, lodging, food, summer camp expenses, and day-to-day operations. Second, a Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) BOOST grant of $250,000, running from January 1, 2025 through January 2027, covers $41,667 per year for each of three dedicated PAL officers. Third, an Erie County Office of Drug and Alcohol Abuse agreement, renewed annually and currently just under $225,000, reimburses PAL overtime at $82 per hour for just over 2,700 hours per year, meaning no PAL overtime is drawn from the police department's regular overtime budget. The city pays Captain Lennox's full salary, the remaining salary balances for the other dedicated PAL officers, related healthcare benefits, and maintenance and fuel for two local buses. Overtime wages are W-2 wages; pension is calculated on base salary only, not overtime. Council members asked clarifying questions about budget impact, pension treatment, and grant longevity.
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Future budget and community policing (mayor): The mayor said the expiring PCCD grant will require decisions for the 2027 budget. She proposed pursuing additional grants and/or carving out a portion of the police budget for a community policing unit led by Captain Lennox that would do more than PAL. Related initiatives include launching a citizen police academy, codifying a mayor's council on community safety and trust, and continuing minority recruitment. She said PAL is one important tool, not the entirety of community policing, and noted the county drug and alcohol funding has been reliable year over year. Dr. Titus added that this is one piece of healing and changing the community narrative.
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Council member positions and requests: Several councilors expressed strong support for PAL, with one saying they love the program and would back it to the end because it provides positive role models and mentorship; another said saving even a dozen kids would be a win. One councilor noted the police budget is 40% of the city budget and asked to be informed of future grant applications for peace of mind. Councilor Flores requested data on PAL graduates and outcomes to supplement anecdotes, and another council member who leads a nonprofit and is also a therapist asked for statistics on graduation, college, and trade school enrollment. A councilor mentioned PAL began when the Erie School District had over 13,000 students and about 11,500 lacked organized activities. A councilor also suggested more formal parent engagement, such as cotillion-style or parent-child events, to expand adult involvement.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken; this was a study session.
- The mayor committed to providing data on PAL graduates and success outcomes, with Captain Lennox and Officer Fields assigned to assemble it.
- A future study session on community policing was discussed.
- The 2027 budget process will include decisions about replacing grant funding, possibly creating a dedicated community policing unit, and keeping council informed of grant applications.
Meeting Transcript
Sometimes when it rains, it pours a little bit, and we're just having some tech and and getting things printed correctly here. We want to make sure that everybody can see the information and has access to the information. Also wanted to set the stage to tonight. We're gonna be going over PAL, but also a little bit into just some of the community policing. Um more from the standpoint of we are gearing up to go into budget sessions, and so this is a big part of the city budget. And so my goal was for us to have more time where we spend in. This is a study session that several of us have asked for to make sure that we have the information we need to make the decisions as we start to enter in to September, October, and November, really into that budget season. So I wanted to kind of set the stage for that. Uh and with that, I'll go ahead and I will mic pass it over for you all to go ahead and start your presentation. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Titus. Thank you, council, for having us in here today. Uh before we get started, uh, I'm gonna do a brief history lesson of the program before I turn it over to uh my partner here, Antoine. Uh what I first want to do is just read our overall mission. Um I'm not gonna read it page for page. Everybody here has um your copies, but the mission is important. The Erie Police Athletic League aims to foster a positive relationship between law enforcement and youth outside the traditional criminal justice framework. By offering a variety of activities, EriePow supports children's development through life skills training, academic assistance, and programs focused on nutrition, arts, and athletics. The holistic approach not only engages kids but also promotes personal growth and community connections. So the reason why I read that, um, and it's only fitting we're here 10 years or we're going into our 10-year anniversary. Um so it's only fitting to kind of update council uh what we've been doing the last decade. Um, but basically in a nutshell, uh back in uh 2015, uh there was talks of um getting a youth league started in our community. Um our former chief uh Rainey Bowers, um actually uh Dr. Horton was involved in that process back then. He was one of our original board members, Ronnie Di Nicola. They came up with the idea to possibly bring the police athletic league back after a 40-year hiatus uh since 1985. It was the last year that POW was in the community. So uh Chief Bowers pulled myself, two other officers in within that first year. We came up with an immediate game plan of how we could uh get this program implemented in our city and attach it to the uh police department. Uh so there was a lot of thought uh that went into it with school. Uh we knew that we were going to attach ourselves to the uh city of Erie School District. So the question was what school were we gonna start in? Um so you know, basically looking at the crime statistics around that pocket in time. We believed at that time the Lower East Side would have been a good place to start, uh, which is why Piper Burley uh was chosen that first year. Um, you know, within that first year, you know, we went in, we attached ourselves to the school district's after school program. It was called Gears at the time. Um, so they were so kind enough to allow us to come in and you know to get this thing piloted, to get it started. So we had a we had about 35 kids that first year, uh first couple months just to kind of ease the tension and things like that. Things didn't really get up and roll until three or four months once everybody felt comfortable with the program. Long story short, for the sake of time. Um it was a very successful year at Piper Burley, which led us into that first summer. We instituted our first uh summer camp, which I'd like to note that in distinction, that was the first uh time at Pyle Chapter in the entire country. Um did a camp at a major university. So that was you know pretty groundbreaking at that time. We had about 65 kids fast forward into year two. Uh the uh school district was so kind they liked what you know they saw in that first year in that one school. Uh so we took on a West Side school the following year in Harding and uh McKinley. Um at that time we were already in the uh boys and girls club as one of our satellite locations to do some activities with the kids off school hours. Uh fast forward to now, and again, I hate to just fast forward to now, but I'm going to.
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