Cherry Tree Borough Council last night accepted the resignation of Police Chief Michael Rummel and immediately promoted Sergeant John F. Blake to the position.
Blake is a Purchase Line High School graduate with an interesting background. He’s a former investigator for the Indiana County Domestic Relations Section and also a former Green Township constable. He was on the SWAT team and the Special Enforcement Team with the Winchester, Virginia police force, working on drug and gang interdiction. Blake is also an FBI-trained Hostage and Crisis Negotiator and also spent five years as a Department of Defense contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s also worked with the Northern Cambria and Hastings police departments, and has been with the Cherry Tree police since 2014.
Cherry Tree’s Police Department employs six part-time officers, serving four municipalities: Cherry Tree Borough, Marion Center Borough, and Montgomery and Pine townships.
