County board signs annual agreement for emergency protective care

​YORK – The York County Commissioners renewed its contract with Region V Systems which provides care for those taken into emergency protective custody (EPC).
The county is required to provide specialized care for individuals when law enforcement determines they are a danger to themselves and/or the public.
In the recent past, the county entered into an expanded contract which now provides more available beds in different locations in the state. Prior to this availability, there were times when individuals could not immediately be placed in a specialized care facility because there were no available beds. Now, there are more opportunities for this care – which is good news because the number of EPCs in York County has been increasing.
Commissioner Randy Obermier asked York County Attorney Gary Olson, “Is there a way to track the number of EPCs, because having the exact number would be good to see how it corelates to what we spent.”
Olson said he didn’t know the exact number for the last fiscal year, adding, “the number of EPCs were somewhere between 26 and 28” in the last year.