On August 1st, 2017, at 7 p.m., Acting Chief of Police Darrell Reider will be officially sworn-in as Swatara Township's 8th Chief of Police! The ceremony will take place at Swatara Township's National Night Out event located at Vanatta Memorial Park in Swatara Township (Harrisburg, PA)(Behind 7-11 in the 4800 block of Derry Street). All the members of the Police Department send their congratulations to Chief Reider and look forward to his vision and leadership. Members of the public are invited to attend the ceremony as well as the National Night Out event.

A short history of Chief Reider:

Chief Darrell R. Reider has been employed by the Swatara Township Police Department since March 6, 1989.

Prior to becoming a police officer Chief Reider was a security officer at the Masonic Village, Elizabethtown, and a Youth Detention Counselor at the Woodside Juvenile Detention Center in Dauphin County.

While employed at the Swatara Township Police Department Chief Reider has served in several assignments.  Upon being hired he was assigned to the Uniformed Patrol Division and worked in that capacity until being assigned to the Detective/Juvenile Aid Officer position in 2004. Chief Reider was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in 2010 and returned to the Uniformed Patrol Division. In 2012, he left that Division and was promoted to the position of Lieutenant in charge of Criminal Investigation & Field Services. In 2017, he was again promoted, this time to the position of Deputy Chief of Police. During his service as a Patrol Officer he assumed the added responsibility as a Dauphin County Accident Reconstruction Team member and a Field Training Officer.  While assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division, Chief Reider also served as member of the Dauphin County Child Abduction Response Team, was a Certified Polygraph Examiner, and completed a myriad of specialized trainings and certification programs to include POSIT, Child Fatality Investigations, Forensic Child Abuse Investigation, AWIRE wire-tap, Hostage Negotiations through the FBI, Homicide Investigation, and Advanced Interviewing and Interrogation, to highlight a few. Chief Reider has been a proud member of the Dauphin County Crisis Response Team as a Hostage Negotiator since 2006.

For his efforts, Chief Reider received the Swatara Township Police Officer of the year award in 2006, and in 2008 he was recognized throughout the state of PA for his work on Child Sexual Abuse Cases by earning the Attorney General’s Law Enforcement Award of Excellence. Chief Reider has received the Departmental Award of Heroism, the Life Saving Award, numerous Awards of Merit and the Team Achievement Award.

In addition to his normal work duties Chief Reider also assumed several support roles within the Swatara Township Police Department as well as within the community.  Throughout his career he served his fellow officers as president of the Swatara Township Police Association.  He is a member of the Friends for the Children Resource Center of Pinnacle Health, he has been a guest speaker at the Harrisburg Area Community College, coached baseball, and is a member of the Abraham Treichler Masonic Lodge in Elizabethtown.

Chief Reider is a member of the Dauphin County Chiefs of Police Association. He is also a member of the Central Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, and the Fraternal Order of Police.

Chief Reider earned his Associates degree in 1987 from Harrisburg Area Community College with a course of study in Correctional Rehabilitation.  Thus far he has completed 30 collegiate credit hours at Penn State University in their Criminal Justice program.  In 2008 he completed the course work of Communication Skills for the Law Enforcement Professionals at Capella University. In March of 2017 Chief Reider graduated from the Pennsylvania State Police Leadership Development Course held at the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Hershey.