Papers are scattered across the desk and boxes and bags are on the floor.

"You'll have to excuse the mess, I'm still getting situated here," said Scott Fogel, the new chief of police in Lehigh Township.

Fogel started the position in August.

He first became a police officer in 1995 in Quakertown, where he worked as a patrol officer. In his first five years he became a juvenile officer and got involved with the bike patrol.

Fogel also worked as a grant writer at Quakertown where he helped obtain more than $110,000 in grants for the department.

"That's one of the neat things about small police departments, you really have the opportunity to start learning everything about policing," he said.

Fogel worked as a patrol officer for nine years before being promoted to corporal. This allowed him to work as a patrol supervisor and gave him the responsibility of scheduling and training officers.

He received a master's degree in public administration and a bachelor's in criminal justice from Kutztown University.

"This is a very well established department, and they have really good officers here, that was one of the big lures," he said.

"I like to see how things work, see what the officers here do, and how much knowledge they have and then feed off of that."

Fogel spoke of the importance of finding the officer's specialty and helping that bloom.

He wants to revise the police policy manual so that it is standardized and universal.

"My favorite thing is being able to teach other officers and give them the training and tools and resources to do the best that they can," he said. "There are very capable officers in this department and it's my job to make sure they can have all the resources and tools they need to do it."