AMHERST — An insufficient pool of applicants of those seeking to become the next police chief in Amherst is prompting the town’s search committee to increase efforts at widening interest.

At a periodic Cuppa Joe meeting on Friday morning, focused on the Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service department, which also has interim leadership, Town Manager Paul Bockelman informed residents that searches for both the police chief and CRESS director remain in progress, with the latter search more advanced.

In both cases, the candidates selected, as future department heads, will be referred to the Town Council, which will have 14 days to approve, disapprove or allow the appointments without action.

Bockelman said for police chief, a “strong, but small pool” of candidates is prompting the committee to meet again next Wednesday to go through more applications. The police chief would lead a team of 47 sworn officers and 14 civilian employees, including those who handle emergency dispatching.

Input is continuing to be sought from the Community Safety and Social Justcie Commitee, Human Rights Commission and others to make sure that the right person is selected to succeed Police Chief Scott Livingstone, who retired last May.

“This is one of the most important jobs in town,” Bockelman said.

The conversation about the searches came as Police Sgt. Janet Griffin and Fire Chief Tim Nelson, part of the interim leadership team for CRESS, provided an update on department they have led since the fall departure of CRESS director Earl Miller.

Griffin explained that they are giving structure to the department and ensuring that the multiracial teams of responders are ready to hit the street. Since Dec. 18, CRESS responders have been heading to basic emergency calls, while continuing programs that include collaborating with the schools and Jones Library, and also helping residents who call the department directly.

At the schools, one of the programs is on the weekends and designed to be an alternative to suspension, and at the Jones, the office hours allow them to interact with those who are unhoused.

Bockelman said the latter initiative has been beneficial for the library. “Library staff don’t want to call police, but that’s all they have,” Bockelman said.

Griffin said that CRESS responders also do “presence walks” around town so people understand they are available to assist and morning movement classes with middle schoolers.

Both the police and fire departments, Nelson said, support CRESS. “The only way this is going to work is if we’re all working together,” Nelson said.

Even with complaints that the department has been too slow to develop, Nelson said it is on a similar pace to similar departments across the country.

Bockelman said Amherst is looking at a Durham, North Carolina model, with a grant that will pay to send people to observe and learn from that city’s HEART, which stands for Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Team.

While some have suggested that CRESS teams should be handling loud parties by college students, Nelson said those are situations that could pose harm to responders. Students aren’t violent, but beer bottles and other objects can be thrown. “Even those small ones, you never know,” Nelson said.

One of those at the Cuppa Joe, longtime resident Harvey Allen, asked why the next police chief can’t just be hired from within the department, observing that the town has had success with succession, recalling when Police Chief Frank Hart served until the early 1970s. That has continued since then, with Donald Maia followed by Charles Scherpa and then Livingstone, with Gabriel Ting as the current interim.

But Bockelman said as great a pipeline as the town has had, with leaders even heading to other communities and agencies to serve as police chiefs, he is bound by the town charter that requires outside advertising for positions and any internal candidates to have to compete for the work.

All things being equal, though, hiring from within is preferred, he said.

Both Griffin and Nelson indicated that they want to hear from people with criticisms of police, including from the Black, Indigenous and people of color communities, but that police should be seen as a net positive for the community.

Griffin observed that Amherst Police was the second department in Massachusetts to receive accreditation, meaning it has to meet or exceed various standards.

One resident at the Cuppa Joe expressed that police do not treat the BIPOC community fairly, which prompted Nelson to note that Amherst Police has been a model for progressive law enforcement.

“Amherst Police was progressive and ahead of the curve before it was trendy,” Nelson said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.