Joining eight other police departments in Upper Bucks, Richland has agreed to partner with the Bucks County Human Services Division in order to add special expertise in social services needs to police response to individuals contacting 911 for emergencies.
The action was taken by unanimous vote of township supervisors, on Feb. 13, through approval of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Human Services Co-Responder Initiative.
The 2-year agreement calls for funding by the county, with any continuation to be covered by the individual townships. Police Chief Rich Ficco noted that the program has been in effect for several years in Lower Bucks, and is now being expanded to Upper Bucks on this trial basis.
In addition to Richland, the latter is to include the police departments of Bedminster, Dublin, Perkasie, Quakertown Borough, Tinicum, and Hilltown, as well as Pennridge Regional.
Ficco added that already in Bensalem, in Lower Bucks, the special expertise in social services had been added as employees. Solicitor Linc Treadwell said “we don’t know if there will be a cost” to Richland to continue after the county-funded two-year agreement expires, and suggested formal calendar noting of the project. Ficco further noted that “we will go through the data on an ongoing basis to see if it’s worthwhile.”
Later in the meeting, he reported that his department had been re-accredited, for another three years, by the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission. In her letter advising the approval, the coordinator for the accreditation and professional development program noted that “you have the right to be very proud of your agency. Only a small percentage of law enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania are able to say that they have completed this rigorous program.”
The MOU for the Human Services Co-Responder Initiative is headed by the Pennridge Regional Police Department and the County of Bucks Human Services Division. It notes that “the police departments agree to work in conjunction with the Division in addressing the social needs of individuals contacting 911 emergency services and those who have been determined to require specific social service needs.”
The division includes the Area Agency on Aging; Behavioral Health and Development Programs; the Children and Youth Social Services Agency; and the Bucks County Drug and Alcohol Commission. “Overarching goals” of the initiative are noted as “decreasing the time law enforcement spends responding to situations involving social services needs; provide a more effective emergency response through the addition of clinical-informed support and an enhanced community resource knowledge base; and divert individuals presenting with social services needs from further penetration into the criminal justice system.”
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