Altoona Police Chief Joe Merrill says he wants to promote proactive policing during his tenure. “With proactive policing, we are more in touch with the community’s needs, and I saw people begin to form meaningful relationships with the officers,” he says. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

City Police Chief Joe Merrill has accepted a job as chief of police in State College, and will be retiring from his current post in early January, after 20 years.

Merrill, 42, applied for the position in State College because working there will allow him to return to the town where he was born and raised, where his parents still live and where his wife works, he said Tuesday, the day after State College Borough Council voted on hiring him.

See Wednesday’s Altoona Mirror for the complete story.