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Council weighs public-safety staffing, SAFER grant hires and expanded outreach for people experiencing homelessness
Summary
Councilors discussed a five-year public-safety staffing plan, the recent federal SAFER grant that funded nine firefighters, and proposals to add social‑work or peer‑support responses to reduce police workload on homelessness-related calls.
Public-safety staffing and responses to homelessness were a prominent topic during the Jan. 7 Provo City Council work meeting. Councilors reviewed recruitment and grant-funded hires and debated whether to budget for additional staff and non-police outreach options as part of the FY26 planning process.
Chief Scott Hedman reported the city received a federal SAFER grant that funded nine firefighters; the grant covers those positions for three years. Hedman said the nine firefighters have allowed the department to staff Station 1 with three firefighters for the first time in many years and that continued funding would be needed to maintain the staffing level after the grant expires.
“Is there a need for more? Potentially… If I could have the world, I would have one additional firefighter on every fire apparatus in the city,” Chief Hedman said, while also noting the city meets national response standards about 80% of the time.
On policing and homelessness, Councilor George Hamley and others described ride-alongs with officers and conversations with outreach providers. Several councilors singled out peer‑support and social‑work models as alternatives to a police-centric response for many calls involving people experiencing homelessness. A councilor summarized a point made by a peer advocate: “peer support people have an really unique ability to immediately gain trust and get people to go where they need to go.”
Police staff noted the city already partners with Wasatch Mental Health and other agencies for crisis responses and convenes a weekly multi-agency case meeting to coordinate services for high-need individuals. Police said those partners are a vital resource but that the workload often involves repeated, non-crisis interactions that strain officer time.
Why it matters: councilors signaled they want public-safety staffing to remain a high priority in FY26, and some asked for a multi-year funding plan so the city would not face a large budget spike when grant funding ends. Councilors also requested analysis of whether investing in social‑work or peer‑support positions—either city‑hired or funded via contract—would reduce officer time spent on repeat outreach and improve outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.
Next steps: public-safety leaders will prepare cost projections for maintaining SAFER-funded positions beyond the grant period, suggested staged hiring approaches, and an analysis of options for adding social‑work or peer‑support outreach alongside police to address non-crisis needs more effectively.
