Peter Nickischer, a 2001 graduate of Penn State University, serves as a Lieutenant with the Upper Macungie Township Police Department in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania. He is currently assigned as the department’s Crime and Community Services Division Commander. Before becoming a division commander, Lt. Nickischer served Upper Macungie residents as a patrolman, criminal investigator, and patrol sergeant. 2025 will mark his 22nd year as a law enforcement officer.
In 2005, after his involvement in an armed barricaded subject incident, Lt. Nickischer was selected to join the Lehigh County Municipal Emergency Response Team as a hostage negotiator. In 2017, he became the commander of the hostage negotiation team. Since taking over command of the team, Lt. Nickischer has upgraded the team’s communication equipment, enhanced the team's diversity by adding female and bilingual negotiators, and added two civilian mental health consultants who play an active role in the negotiation process.
Along with his role as crisis negotiation team commander, Lt. Nickischer is a guest instructor at the FBI 40-hour Crisis Negotiation Course, where he teaches Incident Assessment and acts as a role player. He also teaches crisis negotiation for the Upper Macungie Township Junior Services Academy.
Lt. Nickischer was named the Berks-Lehigh Regional Police Officer of the Year in 2008 and received similar honors in 2016 when he was named Officer of the Year by the Financial Security Officers of Eastern Pennsylvania. He also received the prestigious David M. Petzold Memorial Foundation Beyond the Badge Award for Outstanding Community Service in 2014. In 2021, Lt. Nickischer received a life-saving award from the Whitehall Township Police Department for an incident in which he successfully negotiated a suicidal male off of a bridge.
In addition to his service to Upper Macungie Township, Lt. Nickischer is the Vice Chair of the Penn State Lehigh Valley Advisory Board. He is also the Vice President of the Delaware Valley Negotiators Association and previously served on the Board of Directors for Turning Point of the Lehigh Valley, a non-profit group that provides education, safe housing, and counseling for victims of intimate partner abuse.
