Morgan Caltabiano, Lower Moreland's Second-Ever Female Detective, Speaks With Patch

LOWER MORELAND, PA — To make detective with not even two years of police experience under one’s belt is no doubt an impressive feat.

Yet the name plate on Morgan Caltabiano’s desk at the Lower Moreland Police Department shows that the young 25-year-old has done just that.

In September, Caltabiano, a Northeast Philly resident and ex-city cop who has only been with Lower Moreland since July 2020, became the midsized suburban department’s newest detective.

She is only the second-ever female detective in the township.

Caltabiano, who will turn 26 later this month, still lives in the Rhawnhurst section of the city with her father, a career paramedic with Second Alarmers, and a person whom she considers a mentor.

She grew up in a family dedicated to public service, which got her interested in police work.

Caltabiano ended up going to police academy and working as a Philly police officer, first on a foot beat in Southwest Philadelphia down by the airport for a couple months, and later with another district.

The work was tough, and she soon had her sights set on working in a suburban police department.

She knew she found her home at the time she was taking a physical fitness test; recruits had to do sit-ups without raising their feet, something she had trouble with since she hadn’t had to do that at the Philly academy.

Lower Moreland Police Chief David Scirrotto, a guy with Philly Italian roots similar to Caltabiano’s, offered to help out by sitting on her feet during the fitness test.

“So, he held my feet and I was like, yeah, I want to work for a place like this,” Caltabiano said. “I started Googling this place and I was like, this chief is all about the community.”

Patch recently sat down with Caltabiano inside her office at the police department to discuss her roots, career aspirations and thoughts on policing in the modern age.

Caltabiano said she is happy to be working in a police department like Lower Moreland, where she feels she can really make a difference and have an impact on the community, since it’s much smaller than somewhere like Philadelphia.

“You can give one hundred percent to this job,” she said.

At the same time, detective work can be a lot more daunting than patrol work.

When you’re in patrol, you’re basically done at the end of your shift. Detective work, however, never stops.

She has a work cellphone that is constantly by her side and can go off at any moment, day or night. Basically, she’s on call around the clock.

These things no doubt make the job challenging.

But the job also comes with its rewards.

Caltabiano gets to utilize her empathetic skills when interacting with folks in the community.

One thing she has done was to bring the so-called “Bridge” program to Lower Moreland. This involves partnering with stakeholders like social workers, mental health services professionals and children and youth representatives in order to aid individuals or families who are in crisis and are dealing with law enforcement.

Caltabiano said those types of calls have increased over the years so a program like this is very beneficial.

“I always had a proactive rather than reactive mindset,” she said.

Caltabiano said her proactive nature really helps her when it comes to the concept of true community policing.

“How do we get on the job and try to stop the crime before it occurs, not how do we handle the aftermath,” she said.

Police Chief Scirrotto couldn’t be happier with his newest detective.

“Morgan has been a great addition to our police department and is our sixth female officer,” the chief told Patch. “She is also our second female detective. She has a great energetic personality and has assisted with our community policing initiatives over her first year and a half here at LMPD.”

Scirrotto said Caltabiano’s experience policing in Philadelphia combined with her “passion for investigations” has allowed her to beat out the competition when it came to naming a new detective.

“I expect her to have a long and successful career here at LMPD,” Scirrotto said.

Caltabiano said she can certainly see herself working her entire professional law enforcement career here in Lower Moreland.

On beating out the competition for the detective position, Caltabiano said she was just herself during the interviewing process and hoped to show higher-ups that she was fully capable of handling the job.

“I think when you’re passionate about something it just seeps through you,” she said.

Caltabiano had nothing but wonderful things to say about those who she beat out for the position.

“People who have invested a lot into this place and people who I have a lot of respect for,” she said on fellow officers who had also put in to become detective.

One person she considers a great mentor is the department’s other female detective, Holly Halota, a veteran who has been with the department for decades. Their offices are right down the hall from one another.

Caltabiano said her young age also has its perks, since she is good with things like social media and smartphones and all those things that can now be helpful in investigative police work.

At the end of the day, Caltabiano simply looks forward to continuing to do her job with passion, commitment and empathy, and she hopes people in the township appreciate the fact that she is 100 percent dedicated to ensuring Lower Moreland remains a safe community.