The City of Williamsport is hopeful state and federal grants can be put toward helping its bureaus of police and fire do their jobs more efficiently.

Mayor Derek Slaughter said in a recent community survey for the American Rescue Plan that public safety and parks and recreation topics were neck and neck as far as first place on survey takers’ minds.

Behavioral and mental health and the formation of a critical intervention team are at the top of the priority list for police Chief Justin Snyder, assistant police Chief Jason Bolt and Fire Chief Sam Aungst. Both departments are involved in an overall accreditation process.

Public safety grants will assist toward a hybrid team of law enforcement personnel.

It could also include a social worker and, potentially, an emergency medical technician.

The team would be implemented where and when someone is undergoing a mental health or behavioral health crisis. “We are able to deploy this team out,” Slaughter said.

The team would, first and foremost, make sure the individual is safe and the public is safe. Then, it would examine the situation and determine the appropriate resources the individual needs in order to get the necessary treatment.

District Attorney Ryan Gardner is on board with this, the mayor said.

“Everyone is working together right now to get the resources out in the community,” Slaughter said.

The question for responders is, “how do we get the appropriate resources in our community and into the schools?”

It boils down to getting the treatment out to folks to help them get back to being a productive member of society and not caught up in a cycle of criminality, Slaughter said.

If the response requires a criminal investigation that would be handled, certainly, as appropriate.

If there are calls where the team can identify and filter out behavioral health or mental health issues and have that critical intervention team respond that would be better for the individual and city.

The grants are being sought from the U.S. Department of Justice and Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Consultants are seeking the state and federal government grant money.

“We think clearly it will be beneficial not just to the law enforcement but to the community and most importantly getting folks with mental health or behavioral health needs the resources and the treatment they need,” Slaughter said.

Body cameras

The body cameras for police officers are here and they’re getting programmed.

“We ordered radios and body cameras,” Slaughter said.

The new radios arrived as did the body cameras.

“The body cameras are currently being programmed and as soon as we can get them rolled out making sure the officers are trained, everything is in place and in the not too distant future the officers will have the body cameras on and be out on patrol on a daily basis.”