Increased Crime Effecting Region

In Beacon Hill's race to cram through ill-considered legislation, leadership refused to conduct an Independent Cost Benefit Analysis that, at the very least, would have considered the costs and impacts of a Slot Barn on surrounding communities.

This is consistent with Gambling Facilities around the country and in other countries.


Crime up in Hellertown

Borough wants share of gaming money to pay for two more officers.

Hellertown is hoping to get gaming revenue to pay for two more police officers to battle an increase in crime the borough has seen since the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem moved next door.

Police Chief Robert Shupp told Borough Council this week that crime and arrests are up since last year and that means more overtime for officers testifying in court. The increase includes mostly drug crimes and drunken driving but also some counterfeiting, prostitution and other infractions.

"We're encountering drugs we didn't encounter in Hellertown [before]," including methamphetamine and heroin, Shupp said in an interview.

In the year before the casino opened in May 2009, borough police had 35 drug arrests; in the year following they had 102. Drunken driving arrests rose from 51 to 76 in the same period. Hellertown police responded to 5,752 calls in the 14 months before Sands opened and 7,222 in the 14 months after, Shupp said.

Shupp said the increase doesn't mean that all the offenders are coming from the casino but it was the only major change in the area during that time.

Bethlehem has hired more officers and as they step up patrols, criminal activity might be migrating to the borough, he speculated.

Before the casino came to Bethlehem, surrounding communities were assured that there would be money to deal with any negative impacts, he said.

"That casino has been open a year and a half and we haven't seen one dime," Shupp said. "I can't blame the Sands because the Sands are fulfilling … their obligations. They're giving the money; we just haven't seen it."

Hellertown Councilwoman Stephanie Kovacs is hoping to change that when she makes a pitch for several borough grant applications at the Northampton County Gaming and Economic Redevelopment Authority meeting Monday evening at County Council chambers.

Hellertown and other communities surrounding the casino — Freemansburg and Bethlehem and Hanover, Lower Saucon and Bethlehem townships, as well as Northampton County — are eligible to apply for a pot of gaming revenue to help mitigate its negative effects. By January, that pot — called the restricted fund — is expected to be about $1.2 million, Kovacs said.

She and other representatives on the gaming authority will rate the projects on a point system. (A separate pool of gaming funds is available for economic development projects.)