Upper Dublin Corporal Dave Madrak Will Lead Program On Suburban Policing For The Public

UPPER DUBLIN, PA — Community members who are interested in learning more about suburban policing in Pennsylvania are invited to a program led by a veteran officer from this eastern Montgomery County town.

The Upper Dublin Township Police Department is continuing its 'Know Your Township' series next week with a presentation titled "Intro To Criminal Justice" led by Upper Dublin Police Corporal Dave Madrak.

The program, free and open to the public, will take place April 28 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Upper Dublin Public Library.

Madrak, who has been with the Upper Dublin Police Department since 2006, previously taught an introduction to criminal justice course as an adjunct professor at Cabrini College for about six years.

He said the one-day program offered next week at the library is sort of a condensed version of that course, since that program lasted about 15 weeks.

"It will go from slightly broad to very narrow and specific," Madrak told Patch in an interview. "It's an opportunity to get to know your local department."

Madrak said he plans to touch on various aspects of suburban policing, and how things might differ from department to department in Pennsylvania, which is known to have some of the greatest number of municipal police agencies in the entire country due to the fact that the commonwealth has some of the most individual local governments nationwide.

"Most people don't know how their police departments operate," Madrak said on the reason behind the program. "Essentially, every police department in Pennsylvania is similar, but different."

Madrak said one of the reasons Upper Dublin decided to offer the program was to help foster greater police-civilian relations.

"What society demands of policing today, transparency is at the forefront," he said. "People need to understand why we operate in the manner that we do."

There will also be time reserved for a question-answer segment for those in attendance.

Madrak said members of the public often only have interaction with law enforcement either through things like traffic stops, or at community events.

"But they don't actually understand why police departments operate in the manner that they do," he said.

The program is free and open to anyone who is interested, but those coming out will have to preregister here.

The Upper Dublin Public Library is located at 520 Virginia Drive in Fort Washington.