ST. GEORGE — The St. George Council recently signed a contract calling for a private firm to respond to non-injury or minor-injury crashes within the new city.

The company's name is "On Scene Services" and it's headquartered in New Orleans. St. George Mayor Dustin Yates says he hopes to lessen the burden on the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office and Louisiana State Police that patrol St. George.

"As everybody knows, in St. George, we don't have our own municipal police department. We rely on our law enforcement partners with the sheriff's office as well as state police," Yates said.

The OSS program is scheduled to launch in St. George this fall, but Yates said the city doesn't have a specific date in mind. However, he says the ramp-up time is 60 days and hopes to see them on the street in the early parts of September.

"All the accidents will be dispatched to the sheriff's office, so the sheriff's office communication staff actually handles those dispatches," Yates said. "They'll have a process that they go through in order to validate what type of incident it is. If it looks like it's going to be a civil type deal where somebody has to write a report, take pictures for insurance purposes, that's really what we're talking about."

According to Yates, the responders will be unarmed and identifiable in marked vehicles, but they will not wear a "full battle dress uniform."

"These folks will actually be in pickup trucks that will say St. George Public Safety on them. They'll have a uniform. It's not going to be a police uniform, but it will be a BDU-style pant, a professional-looking polo shirt that clearly identifies who they are," Yates said.

The city and OSS both say that the respondents will be able to document the incidents with body cameras and photographs. They'll also be able to assist people with the exchange of driver and insurance information.

"The resident will be able to access that within 24 to 48 hours for insurance reporting purposes," Yates said.

Additionally, the respondents are trained in trauma-informed customer service and de-escalation techniques.

"One of the requirements for the applicants is that they have to have a minimum of five years of law enforcement experience, so the question has come up, are these people trained? Are they capable of doing all of these things? These are folks that come from the law enforcement world. Many of them have retired from careers in law enforcement," Yates said.

Before St. George, Central was the most recent city to incorporate within East Baton Rouge Parish. Their police chief Roger Corcoran said he always thinks of the what-ifs out of safety concerns.

"I'm a skeptic," Corcoran said. "I have to see a lot more on that program because my concerns are always safety. The people in this company, their officers, or people that do this are unarmed and you know it's always what if. I would hate to see someone get hurt."

According to the OSS website, the program has been used in New Orleans and Baltimore.