Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Sharon Police Department

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was merge into Sharon, Pennsylvania. King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 23:06, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sharon Police Department

Small-town police force, fails WP:Notability, though it might be desirable to merge some information into Sharon, Pennsylvania. Thunderbunny 01:29, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

• Keep. Police departments are interesting enough to have articles. -- Necrothesp 01:47, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
  • Comment. But are they notable or verifiable? Something being "interesting" or "useful" does not make it encyclopedic. — Dark Shikari ^talk/_contribs 01:57, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
    • Comment American police departments are easily verifiable. Even from the government town of Sharon webiste [1], and a local unbiased newspaper [2] (which are not excluded as sources in WP:N).--Marriedtofilm 02:15, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
      • Comment: Both of the sources you mentioned relate to Sharon, Massachusetts. The police department described in this article is in Sharon, Pennsylvania. Thunderbunny 04:42, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
        • Comment Hah hah! you're right! I was realizing that as I was reading Consequentially's comments below. My point is still American police department references are easy to come by. Whichever Sharon it is, my vote is still "merge". --Marriedtofilm 05:07, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
    • Comment. "Something being "interesting" or "useful" does not make it encyclopedic". Really? What does it make it encyclopaedic then? I don't know about you, but I go to an encyclopaedia to look for interesting and useful information! If the information wasn't either useful or interesting then I wouldn't need it. I'm curious as to what other use you might have for an encyclopaedia. -- Necrothesp 23:06, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
• Merge to the town's article. Individual local police departments don't need their own articles unless they're specifically notable for something. "Uses a different car than the next town over" doesn't count. Opabinia regalis 02:18, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
• Merge to town's article. I don't really see anything notable about this small town police department. Did some checking through google and couldn't find anything of encyclopedic interest (famous cases, pioneering techniques, etc.).--Marriedtofilm 02:50, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
• Keep per Category:United States municipal police departments savidan^{(talk) (e@)} 04:10, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
  • Comment I'm sorry, I don't follow. That's simply a list of articles in that catagory, not WP policy/guidelines. --Marriedtofilm 04:37, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
• Merge into the town's article. While we do have a category for municipal departments, 22 of the 33 articles are on the police departments of major metropolitan areas. Three of the remaining 11 articles ((Bellevue Police Department, Lincoln Police Department, Fremont Police Department)) seem to share the same circle of editors -- notably Lpd1571 who appears to be something of a police hobbyist. I would contend that the articles on smaller police forces are of a simliar vein -- created and maintained by local editors with law enforcement interest. I don't want to get into a debate about how big a department has to get before being noteable, but Sharon, PA seems to be the smallest of these cities, and the information in the article could easily be housed within Sharon, Pennsylvania. Consequentially 04:49, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
• Merge, there is nothing notable about this police department and we don't need articles on 5000 local police departments. The city article needs perhaps a line about the complement of officers and cars and the name of the chief, but the stuff about dogs and tasers is just basic equipment inventory. --Dhartung | Talk 20:50, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
• MergeOr look out for an article for each small town's fire department, health department, water department, sanitation department, forestry department, etc, etc.Edison 22:22, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
• Merge Could be moved to provide more info on the town's article. P.B. Pilhet / Talk 23:04, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
• Merge It would make an OK section of the municipality's Web page.Noroton 00:47, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
• Keep. Merger would indeed preserve the information, but this article probably has more detail about the Police Department than the typical reader of the Sharon article would want. The readers are better served with a summary in the municipality's article and a link to this one for more information. If other departments of other municipalities are treated the same way, I don't see a problem (wiki is not paper); and if they aren't, I don't see a problem (a volunteer organization will always cover some subjects better than others that are comparable). JamesMLane t c 09:59, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
• Delete per WP:ORG as a mere branch. However, I would not oppose content be merged to Sharon, Pennsylvania. Ohconfucius 10:13, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
• Merge with the municipality's article - it isn't notable enough to merit its own entry, Tewfik^Talk 00:57, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.