Mission

The Berks County Department of Emergency Services proudly executes our mission of contributing to the safety of individuals living and working in, and traveling through, Berks County, Pennsylvania.  In conjunction with our local, state, and federal partners, we maintain a state of high readiness for disasters, both technological and natural, through a comprehensive program of prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery.

Our staff stands ready with training and expertise in skills related to emergency communications, planning, technical incident support, logistics, and command.  This expertise, in conjunction with a relentless pursuit of our five core values, makes us a leader among the Pennsylvania emergency services.

Core Values

Our sense of Duty recognizes the importance of our mission to the community we serve.  It ensures that we always remember that, together, we are part of something bigger than ourselves, and even bigger than the sum of all our parts.  It is the foundation of our dedication.

Our Integrity ensures that actions taken in the pursuit of our mission are ethical, and promote the philosophy of “the greatest good” when we are faced with difficult or paradoxical decisions.  It allows us to remember that we are part of our team in both our professional and our personal lives.

Our Compassion allows us to render aid to others in a way that values the individual we are interacting with.  It also helps us to value the concepts of altruism, loyalty, and respect with all persons with whom we work.

Our sense of Equality reminds us that we execute our mission for the benefit of all regardless of their race, color, religion, nationality, sex, age, infirmity, political affiliations or sexual preference.

Our commitment to future Vision constantly drives us to work toward the community’s needs tomorrow, while meeting its needs today.  It ensures that we will never find ourselves having not predicted the public safety needs of our constituency at a level that would prevent us from serving them efficiently.