In just over a year, Reading’s police social service liaisons have become a critical part of the city’s public safety response, helping officers address complex situations that law enforcement alone often can’t resolve, officials said.
The two-person team of Brenda Park and Angela Sekel provided City Council with an update on their work during council’s committee of the whole meeting Monday.
Added to the police department in late 2024, the team offers an alternative to enforcement-focused responses in cases involving mental health, homelessness and family crises.
Their job, the liaisons said, involves accompanying officers on calls, de-escalating situations and connecting individuals with services afterward.
Since starting, they have responded to more than 300 calls.
“We follow up with the people we come in contact with to make sure that we can offer support after the fact,” Park said.
They said their focus is on building trust and guiding people toward voluntary care.
In many cases, this approach helps avoid arrests or involuntary mental health commitments, Sekel noted.
“When they know what they’re looking at, it makes them more agreeable to take the help,” she said.
Much of their work extends beyond crisis response. They help clients find doctors, schedule appointments, secure transportation and access housing or treatment programs.
“It could be simply helping them with a phone number or talking about going into rehab,” Park said, noting contact often isn’t just once and done. “We follow up as many times as it takes.”
Officials said early results suggest the approach is reducing repeat, low-level crisis calls. These calls frequently involve situations that are real and urgent for the caller, but don’t require a traditional law enforcement response.
Such calls typically involve mental health struggles, substance use issues or other needs requiring social services.
“We do have individuals that were repeat callers,” Sekel said. “We’ve been told that since we got involved, they (police dispatchers) have not heard from them.”
Council members described the program as a critical complement to policing.
“This definitely shows public safety isn’t just about enforcement,” Councilman Jaime Baez Jr. said.
Still, staffing remains limited due to budgetary constraints, officials said.
The team works weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. After-hours follow-up is handled the next day in most cases.
Ideally, the team said, a social service liaison would be available around the clock daily.
City Managing Director Jack Gombach acknowledged the program is still in its early stages but pointed to it as a foundation for a broader, more coordinated approach to public safety.
“It is a beginning,” he said, noting the potential for expansion as funding allows.