DALLAS TWP. — Back Mountain residents are invited to a retirement party for retiring Dallas Township Police Chief Robert Jolley on April 26.
Chief Jolley began serving Dallas Township in 1989 and guided the police force through a variety of requirements that led to the department earning accreditation from the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission.
In 2015, he was named president of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, the organization that administers that accreditation.
“He has done a lot for the police department,” said current Dallas Township Police Chief Douglas Higgins.
Jolley’s retirement party, which is organized by Chief Higgins, will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, April 26, at Appletree Terrace at Newberry Estates in Dallas.
Tickets are $25 per person. Advanced registration is required by April 13, said Susan Maloney, administrative assistant of the Dallas Township Police Department.
Tickets may be acquired by mailing a check payable to Douglas Higgins, Dallas Township Police Department, 2919 State Route 309, Dallas, PA 18612.
For information, call Maloney at 570-674-2003 or email [email protected].
The event is a “token of appreciation” from the Dallas Township Police Department for Jolley’s leadership, Higgins said.
“He is a really great guy,” Higgins said.
Jolley’s career began in 1976 when he graduated from the State Police Academy. He served as a police officer with various local law enforcement agencies, including Dallas Borough, Kingston Township and Courtdale.
“He was a police officer here in the mid-1980s,” said Dallas Borough Police Chief James Drury, noting it was before his time with the department.
Drury worked with Jolley on different past projects and found him to be “very knowledgeable and nice.”
Jolley earned a bachelor of arts degree in Administration of Justice from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree in Legal Studies from California University of Pennsylvania.
His career was fueled by a constant desire to learn, which he still fosters as a law enforcement instructor at Lackawanna College Police Academy in Scranton and at Penn State Wilkes-Barre in Lehman Township.
It is Jolley’s love of education that pushed Higgins to attend a 10-week course by Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy.
“He went through the course in 2007,” Higgins said. “When he came back, he said, ‘you need to go.’”
Higgins did not want to leave his family for two and a half months.
“He sat with me and filled out the application,” Higgins said. “He stayed vigilant.”
Five years later, Higgins was accepted into a July 2014 class.
“Career-wise, it was the greatest time in my life,” he said. “I made so many connections and learned so much.”
