HAZLETON -- City council members voted Tuesday night to approve a tax increase to fund two to three more city police officers.
The meeting was packed with residents demanding a safer city.
"I served in Iraq where I was wounded, when I came back I actually felt safer in a war zone than the community to which I lived," said resident John Leonard.
"This has become the symbol of Hazleton, OK? This is the heroin addicts that are coming in my pharmacy and every pharmacy in this city seeking syringes, so we see it front and center,” said John Keegan, holding up handfuls of syringes.
The meeting came the same day as a shooting near Wyoming Street in the city, which left one person hospitalized.
The new part-time city police chief, Jerry Speziale and Mayor Jeff Cusat asked council to increase property taxes by 2 percent to pay for more police officers.
That tax hike would mean about $9 more a year for a property assessed at $100,000.
Speziale and Cusat also want a 25 cent earned income tax increase, so 25 cents on every $100 of gross income.
City leaders say with those changes and some help from the police union, they could hire six more full-time police officers.
Currently, there are 37 officers on the force.
"Please, give us the opportunity because collaboration will unleash the power of all of us to do what none of us can do alone and we will have a safer Hazleton,” said Speziale.
Council members say it could be illegal for them to raise the earned income tax by that much. Instead, they voted to instead raise it .21 to hire two to three officers.
They did not vote to increase property tax.
Chief Speziale says a city the size of Hazleton needs at least 32 full-time patrol officers. He wants to have eight patrol cars on the road at all times, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with officers working 12-hour shifts.