Warrington Township Votes To Join Bucks County Co-Responder Program

WARRINGTON TOWNSHIP, PA — Warrington Township voted this month to adopt Bucks County’s Co-Responder program on a two year trial period.

The supervisors made their vote conditioned upon two other municipalities joining the program with Warrington.

The pilot program will run for two years and will be paid for by a grant from the county. After that it will be up to the municipalities to decide whether they want to continue the program.

Neighboring Warwick and Warminster townships are currently considering joining Warrington as the other two partner municipalities.

The program pairs social service and mental health professionals, known as Co-Responders, with police officers in an effort to divert people with social and mental health needs away from the criminal justice system.

The Co-Responders would be available to respond to situations involving mental health and social services and to follow up on referrals and cases, freeing up police for patrol, emergencies and public safety.

“My research and my understanding of this program is that it’s helping to prevent additional crises from happening over and over again,” said Eileen Albillar, who chairs the board of supervisors. “We need to ensure our police officers have all the resources they need to be able to focus on what they need to do rather than mental health issues ... This is a supplemental to give the officers the time and the ability to focus on emergencies.”

The program is designed to:

• Decrease the time law enforcement spends in response to a situation involving social service needs;
• Provide a more effective emergency response through the addition of clinical-informed support and an enhanced community resource knowledge base;
• Ensure those who outreach for an emergency response receive timely and streamlined connection to resources to address their social service needs; and
• Divert individuals with primary social service needs from further penetration into the criminal justice system.

“If they (the Co-Responders) are able, by their presence, to take significantly more work away from the police officers so they can continue to do what they are trained to do in crime and speeding, the township will be way ahead of the game,” said Supervisor Fred Gaines. “And maybe three years from now when the time comes there won’t be a need for an additional police officer because their workload will have been tempered by the presence of these two Co-Responders.”

The Co-Responder program was first piloted by the county in 2020 in Bensalem. It has since been expanded to Middletown, Falls and Bristol Townships and to Bristol Borough and Tullytown Borough.

Prior to the vote, Warrington Township Police Chief Daniel Friel recommended approval of the program in the township.

“This is a two year trial program. I don’t see any harm with trying it to see how it works and then we reevaluate it from there,” said Chief Friel.

The chief quickly put to rest any concern that the program is a backdoor attempt to replace police officers. "It's just not going to happen, even in a perfect world," he said. "I see this person mainly as a follow up or coming out to a scene if it's during the day."

In making his recommendation, Chief Friel shared comments from two Lower Bucks County police chiefs who are part of the program.

“Chief Bartorilla from Middletown reported to me that in just three short months their co-responder handled dozens of referrals and assisted their department with several cases requiring social service followups,” said Friel. “This allowed his officers to spend more time proactively addressing patrol and other public safety and policing issues.”

Cases handled in Middletown to date include homelessness, mental health, addiction, elder care and some school issues, added the chief.

“Chief Bartorilla said the key to success in Middletown was selecting the right person for the job,” said Friel. “Their co-responder has local roots, graduated from their local high school and also worked with the crisis team at the Lenape Valley Foundation.

"The chief also mentioned to me that he is not concerned that the Co-Responders are here to take the place of a police officer and he believes that any Co-Responder would be the first to tell you that." He said the Co-Responders are here to "supplement our department and provide a vital, critical and much needed service to our township," said Friel.

Chief Friel said he also reached out to the Bensalem Township Police Department and to Director of Public Safety William McVey, who reported that their officers now spend less time dealing with social service needs and have gotten back to their primary role as law enforcement officers.

"They feel that having someone on scene who is a mental health professional can help citizens by putting them directly in touch with those who can assist them with their unique needs and can provide them resources," said Friel. "They have also learned that some members of the community feel better talking to a mental health professional than a uniformed police officer when they are in crisis.

"Having this program shows that police departments are doing everything they can to deescalate a situation and divert the individual who may be in crisis to much needed resources versus the criminal justice system," added Friel, sharing feedback from the Bensalem Police Department.

"Chief Bartorilla and Director McVey reported that their departments are strongly behind the program and believe that the program has been a success for their townships," said Friel.