Responders
dents who may be in need of help and visit them.
“The first thing I do when I knock on a door is identify myself as a police officer and tell them, ‘You’re not in any trouble. I am here because I’m worried about you.’ ” he said. “It’s amazing how many people do not close that door on you,” Nickischer said.
He’s seen his fellow officers buoyed by the chance to connect people who are struggling to resources in ways they’d previously been unable to do. The officer buy-in is one of the main reasons Nickischer said the Upper Macungie HUB has been such a success.
“The idea and the goal here is to catch these issues before they really become a problem,” Nickischer said. “When we used to go to a call and had to say, ‘Sorry there’s nothing more I can do’ — that was really hard. We’re problem solvers, and this is what we want to do: help someone.”
Bucks County launched a program last year to embed social workers in the Bensalem Township police department. The community of 60,000 people on the border of Philadelphia had more than 3,300 calls in 2019 when police responded for welfare checks, mental health issues, psychiatric emergencies, suicide attempts, overdoses and domestic disturbances.
“Not too long after the George Floyd incident, I listened to everybody saying police shouldn’t be responding on every type of call,” said Public Safety Director Fred Harran. “We are the only game in town. We’re free, we respond immediately and we don’t ask questions. In these specialized cases, it’s not necessarily the kinds of things we should be responding to.”
Harran said he began researching co-responder programs elsewhere and reached out to social service agencies in Bucks County to float the idea of social workers working with police on calls involving mental health crises, homelessness, child welfare and more complicated issues such as hoarding.
The proposal received support, and county and township officials began developing a framework for two social workers employed by the county to be stationed at police headquarters to respond when officers need them. The program went live in January, and Harran said the department has already seen a reduction in the number of chronic 911 callers who repeatedly summon police for non-law enforcement issues.
In many cases, officers clear the scene as soon as they’re certain there’s no threat and the social workers stay to assess the situation and help the individual connect with services. They also come back to ensure that the person is following through on seeking help and that their needs are being addressed, Harran said.
“Police put a bandage on a bleeding artery,” he said. “With the co-responder, it’s the next level, moving the patient off the battlefield, so to speak, and give them more time.”
Bucks County Human Services Director Rachael Neff said the county has been tracking the program’s responses and has a contract with Holy Family University in Philadelphia to evaluate its outcomes over the two-year pilot. So far, the co-responders have been dispatched on about 75 calls and have freed police to work on other matters.
“This is time well-spent, but it’s by professionals other than the police officers,” Neff said.
Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia was a social worker in Bucks County and has long pushed to improve the interaction between law enforcement and social services. She said the Bensalem police department’s willingness to be the first in the county to attempt such a program was crucial in moving it forward. Other Bucks County municipalities have since expressed an interest in expanding the program to their police departments.
“Change is always tough, but when there’s pain we always tiptoe into the change until it feels normal, and I’m sure that’s how this is going to go,” she said.
Morning Call reporter Peter Hall can be reached at 484-903-3406 or peter. hall@mcall.com.