CITY OF OSWEGO, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — A new member is being added to the Oswego Police Department to help better serve the community’s needs when it comes to mental health calls.

The department is working with the city of Oswego to hire a mental health clinician. This comes after funding was secured to implement a mental health clinician.

Mental health calls are on the rise in the city of Oswego.

“Between 2019 and 2021, our mental health call for services increased 51 percent,” said Officer Brandon Lummis, Oswego City Police Department.

That’s not counting the other calls like welfare checks, ambulance rescue and even domestics that have a mental health or substance abuse component.

“So a lot of what our officers on the streets are dealing with now are mental health related instances but we aren’t necessarily trained or have that specific clinical knowledge to respond to those types of incidents,” said Officer Lummis.

Making it critical to add a professional who can de-escalate situations and provide care to anyone in a crisis. Officer Lummis says having a mental health clinician on the force will be a big help to the department, and with the clinician providing follow-ups, it could prevent further calls from happening.

“Now we can take those preventative follow-ups, put those in place and have a clinician respond to those and help people out in our community,” said Officer Lummis.

The department says the hiring process is still in the early stages.

“There will be job postings, but that’s all determined in the contract that is established by the city council and the mayor’s office,” said Lummis.

Qualifications include being licensed and having one year of experience working in the crisis prevention field.

The announcement was first announced in Mayor Barlow’s State of the City Address in January 2023.

The next steps will be discussed on Monday, Dec. 4 with city officials.