Northern York County Regional Police Chief David Lash intends to fight accusations that he retaliated against officers who raised complaints in the wake of the deaths of three detectives last year.
Lash gave a public statement during the department’s commission meeting Oct. 20, arguing that a civil federal lawsuit filed by three officers the week prior is meritless.
“I firmly believe the claims are without merit. We will vigorously defend against these claims through the appropriate legal process,” he said while pointing out that he wouldn’t comment on specific allegations.
Two members of the 12-person board spoke in Lash’s defense.
“He is the most community-minded person that we have,” commission chairperson Loretta Wilhide, of Conewago Township, said of Lash as she referenced her 17 years on the board. “We have so many more programs started under the tenure of Chief Lash.”
George Donavos, a commission member from New Salem Borough, also praised Lash’s integrity.
“I’ve known Chief Lash quite a while. I know him to be of the highest integrity and honor,” he said.
Lash also mourned the detectives, Cody Becker, Isaiah Emenheiser and Mark Baker, who were shot and killed in an ambush in North Codorus Township in September 2025.
“Cody, Mark and Isaiah were exceptional police officers, devoted husbands and fathers, and dear friends,” he said. “Their loss has left an immeasurable void in our department and our community.”
The comments came immediately after Lash and the commission, which serves as the department’s governing body composed of representatives from each of the 12 municipalities in Northern Regional’s jurisdiction, met for more than an hour in an executive session.
They’d opened the meeting at 6 p.m., addressed an event on the agenda, and then left the room to privately discuss what the agenda showed was personnel and litigation.
State law allows public agencies to hold such private sessions, limited to discussion only with no votes or action to be taken, and address certain matters, such as lawsuits and personnel.
No further discussion was held on the lawsuit after Lash and the two commission members voiced their statements. Residents at the meeting didn’t comment directly on the litigation itself.
The federal suit was filed Oct. 13 by two current officers, Sgt. Christopher Irwin and Tyler Zeller, and a former officer, Logan Chetaitis. They named Lash and the commission as defendants, alleging acts of workplace retaliation that they said violated First Amendment rights and Pennsylvania’s Whistleblower Law.
Their complaint aired a host of accusations.
They started with an allegation that Lash violated department policy by not consulting with York County’s Quick Response Team before Becker, Baker and Emenheiser, as part of a group of six officers, went to a home in North Codorus Township to search for a man named Matthew Ruth, the gunman who ambushed them, during a stalking investigation.
Irwin had raised concerns that the QRT wasn’t contacted as required, the suit argued, alleging that Lash shut down Irwin’s calls for an internal review.
Zeller and Chetaitis submitted anonymous complaints to the commission later in 2025, listing a variety of allegations of misconduct and unfair treatment by Lash and other department leadership, including misuses of funds, according to the suit.
The three officers alleged they faced acts of disciplinary retaliation throughout 2026 in response.
Irwin was allegedly reassigned from his administrative role; Zeller was demoted and then later suspended; and Chetaitis was fired in July.
The suit accused Lash of manufacturing pretext and manipulating facts in order to justify their discipline.
Alongside the federal lawsuit, the police union, as the Northern York County Regional Police Department Officers’ Association, has an unfair labor practices complaint pending before the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board over an issue regarding a disciplinary procedure.
The Labor Relations Board has taken no action on that complaint so far.
Lash’s statement was the police department’s first public comment on the federal lawsuit. The department has not yet filed a response to the case’s allegations at the federal court in Harrisburg.
Proposed budget and new hires
Outside of the litigation, Chief Lash presented his proposed 2027 budget to the commission for review, which he described as “a very cost-effective budget” that’s fueled by growth.
Specifics weren’t publicly discussed. But Lash noted the budget takes into account a plan to cover Spring Grove Borough as the 13th municipality in NYCRPD’s jurisdiction, as well as Manchester, Conewago and North Codorus townships adding service.
He anticipated growing the department’s roster as a result, from 69 sworn officers to 74 sworn officers, he said.
The department also welcomed two new officers to the ranks at the beginning of the meeting by swearing in recent hires Patrick Dolan and Amy Hinds.
Dolan is from outside the Philadelphia area, and Hinds is a Central York High School graduate who previously worked at the York City Police Department and a department in Maryland.
