DA urges municipal participation in county task forces and unveils community outreach hires

At an Emmaus community meeting, District Attorney Gavin Holly said Lehigh County is expanding community outreach and expects two full-time community intervention/outreach specialists to increase local engagement.

"We have funded for 2 full time community outreach people, and we've been able to fill that position most recently," Holly said, introducing Shelby Vince and noting Delia Mitchell recently started with the outreach team. He said the county approved full outreach staffing to begin in January 2026 and the goal is to identify unmet needs that qualify for opioid settlement or forfeiture funding.

Holly also advised municipalities to place officers on county task forces. "If a municipality that has people on our task forces asks for something from drug asset forfeitures, they're more likely to get it than a municipality that doesn't have people on our task forces," he said, urging partnership to secure training and access to county resources.

He described practical benefits: shared training, better two-way information flow from local officers to county investigators, and stronger chances of receiving allocated funds for equipment or programs. Holly suggested municipal participation helps both county-level initiatives and local policing capacity, especially for smaller departments that struggle to hire and retain officers.

The session closed with a short Q&A, distribution of safety items and an invitation to follow up with outreach staff.