In just over a year, Reading\u2019s police social service liaisons have become a critical part of the city\u2019s public safety response, helping officers address complex situations that law enforcement alone often can\u2019t resolve, officials said.<\/p>\n
The two-person team of Brenda Park and Angela Sekel provided City Council with an update on their work during council\u2019s committee of the whole meeting Monday.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Their job, the liaisons said, involves accompanying officers on calls, de-escalating situations and connecting individuals with services afterward.<\/p>\n
Since starting, they have responded to more than 300 calls.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe follow up with the people we come in contact with to make sure that we can offer support after the fact,\u201d Park said.<\/p>\n
They said their focus is on building trust and guiding people toward voluntary care.<\/p>\n
In many cases, this approach helps avoid arrests or involuntary mental health commitments, Sekel noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they know what they\u2019re looking at, it makes them more agreeable to take the help,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Much of their work extends beyond crisis response. They help clients find doctors, schedule appointments, secure transportation and access housing or treatment programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be simply helping them with a phone number or talking about going into rehab,\u201d Park said, noting contact often isn\u2019t just once and done. \u201cWe follow up as many times as it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019t require a traditional law enforcement response.<\/p>\n
Such calls typically involve mental health struggles, substance use issues or other needs requiring social services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have individuals that were repeat callers,\u201d Sekel said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been told that since we got involved, they (police dispatchers) have not heard from them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council members described the program as a critical complement to policing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis definitely shows public safety isn\u2019t just about enforcement,\u201d Councilman Jaime Baez Jr. said.<\/p>\n
Still, staffing remains limited due to budgetary constraints, officials said.<\/p>\n
The team works weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. After-hours follow-up is handled the next day in most cases.<\/p>\n
Ideally, the team said, a social service liaison would be available around the clock daily.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a beginning,\u201d he said, noting the potential for expansion as funding allows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In just over a year, Reading\u2019s police social service liaisons have become a critical part of the city\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-164613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-essential-reading","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}