Ellwood to Join Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT)

In a 5-2 vote, Council decided that Ellwood City would join Lawrence County’s Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT).

The two “no” votes came from Councilman George Celli and Councilman James Barry. This is the second time CIRT participation was up for a vote in council. On June 17 council had a 5-2 vote of no. At that time Councilwomen Marilyn Mancini and Michele Lamenza were the only members who voted to participate. This time around, council President, Judith Dici, and council members Lisa Guerrera and Rob Brough changed their votes.

Guerrera had one question, “Does this cost anything?”

Dici, who moved for council to reconsider the vote during the August 12 agenda meeting, answered Guerrera with a “No,” and she said her original vote was because she wanted to better educate herself on the inner workings of CIRT, and the impact it would have on Ellwood City’s police department and finances. She said after speaking with District Attorney Joshua Lamancusa, she thought it was worth revisiting on the council floor.

She supported her new vote of yes with the following points:

• There is no obligation for the borough to pay a fee to be involved
• If an Ellwood City Police officer is called upon to help during a critical response incident, the borough decides if the officer participates
• Statistics show on average only two critical incidents per year
• CIRT provides gear, equipment, and training. The training is done on the own time of any participating officer not on the borough’s paid working time.
• The team is strictly volunteer
• The borough may be a participating member of CIRT, but is not obligated to send an officer
• Being a participant shows support, and can help with efforts to fund the team

Councilman Celli disagrees that there won’t be any cost to the borough.

“If you believe that,” he said. “I’ve got a bridge to sell you in NY … the Brooklyn Bridge.”

He also said that the State Police are already responsible for any critical incidents that occur.

“We already pay them as taxpayers,” he said.

Another reason he voted no is that he believes that the CIRT team wouldn’t arrive any sooner than the State Police. He also said that once the State Police arrive, regardless of CIRT, they will take over.

Celli said CIRT is a program that may be beneficial to smaller communities that do not have their own police force, but stressed that Ellwood City does.

Councilman James Barry echoed Celli’s reasoning.

“There will still be an expense to this,” Barry said. “We are already shorthanded, and if an event sends any officer into overtime, there will be complaints about that.”

Barry also wondered who would be responsible for healthcare expenses should an Ellwood City officer become injured during a CIRT call. Borough Manager David Allen said the borough would be responsible should such an injury occur.

The purpose of CIRT is to respond to highly dangerous situations such as the service of high-risk warrants,
hostage rescue, riots, hazardous material incidents, natural disasters, active shooters, etc.