In a little noted and seismic shift away from past strategies of arrest and punishment, police departments across Massachusetts are developing programs and services to aid opioid addicts and their families.
According to the Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative (PAARI), a nonprofit founded in June 2015 to provide startup grants and resources to police departments, at least 1,500 people in Massachusetts have entered treatment for addiction through police intervention.
“People in public health have been beating their heads against the wall for decades trying to get people to address the opioid epidemic. The game changer is the voice of law enforcement,” said John Rosenthal, chairman of the PAARI board of directors.
Inspired by the Gloucester Police Department’s ANGEL Program, PAARI connects addicts with treatment programs, distributes lifesaving, opioid-blocking drugs and provides funding and resources to partner police departments, including over 30 in Massachusetts and 200 country-wide.
Under Gloucester’s ANGEL Program, started in 2015 by then-Police Chief Leonard Campanello, addicts who come to the police department and ask for help are not arrested; instead they are taken to Addison Gilbert Hospital where they are paired with a volunteer “angel” who guides them through the recovery process.
The ANGEL Program has placed 520 people in treatment, and relapse rates have fallen to 30 percent from the historic high of 80 percent, according to Rosenthal. He said ancillary crimes in Gloucester such as breaking and entering and shoplifting have also dropped 30 percent.
Several police departments across the state have adopted similar programs.
The Arlington Police Department’s Opiate Outreach Initiative offers a two-pronged program that reaches out to those affected by addiction through phone calls, referrals and walk-ins, and hosts monthly education and awareness meetings. The department has its own mental health clinician, helps victims find detox beds, and even provides transportation to appointments.
“I think we are working to change the stigma that is related to this,” said Capt. Richard Flynn. “There is a whole mindset we had to change even within our department.”
Since Arlington’s program began in July 2015, the department has sent 90 people to hospital treatment and has followed up with 56 families impacted by a drug overdose, according to a police department report. It has also trained 55 people at community meetings in the use of nasal Narcan, an emergency treatment for opioid overdose.
“Now we see it as a health issue more than anything else,” Flynn said. “This is a challenge, though, because people aren’t always ready to take on the help you’re trying to give them.”
Some communities have had outreach programs before 2015. In East Bridgewater, the EB Hope organization was founded in 2012 by Susan Silva, whose son suffers from substance abuse. Partnered with the police department, the program offers a twice-a-month drop-in center where people can find support services such as a mental health clinician, Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous, counseling and advocacy groups and more.
Now celebrating the drop-in center’s one-year anniversary, Police Chief Scott Allen says 503 people have attended the meetings, 136 who were active drug users. More than 180 people in the community have been trained to use Narcan.
“Instead of giving (people) a flier, we are giving them a location where they can come to meet treatment providers face to face,” Allen said. “The best thing we could do before the initiative was referring people to court to have their loved ones committed for substance abuse disorder.”
The Chelsea Police Department has had its own program since 2014, using a team of “navigators” to go out to the streets, find people who need help and provide aid based on their specific needs, “navigating” people to the types of services that will be most helpful to them.
“It’s not just the addiction,” said Dan Cortez, the department’s community engagement specialist. “They don’t have a home. They are disconnected from their families. They may have a lot of mental health issues. (There are) a lot of issues contributing to their using, so we try to address those through our wrap-around services.”
In hopes of expanding the services and facilities it can provide, the department is in the process of reaching out to join PAARI.
From July 1 to Sept. 30 this year, Chelsea’s program has helped more than 170 clients, half of whom were sent to detox, according to community navigator and recovery coach Mike Cain, who had placed four clients in detox the morning of an interview.
Detox centers are only the first step to recovery, Cain and Cortez said, noting that though programs like theirs have had a positive impact on the community, there are still many challenges facing police departments and victims of drug abuse.
“There’s just not enough beds (in detox and treatment facilities) to go around,” Cain said. “If you can find a detox bed this time of year, you’re lucky. If there is no bed, there is nothing we can do.”
With the onset of winter, Cain said addicts are looking for shelters to go to get out of the cold.
Even when people do find beds in detox centers, successful recovery is not guaranteed. Cortez said there is also a shortage of “holding” beds, or transitional housing for people who complete detox and are waiting to get into in-house treatment.
Waiting lists for treatment houses can range from two weeks to six months, depending on the facility’s popularity.
People who are released from detox often go right back to where they were before — using. Cortez said he has seen people go through detox as many as 20 times.
At the Norfolk Police Department, Detective Michelle Palladini said she sees the same pattern.
“Unfortunately, and this is my personal opinion, we are sending people back to the same home, the same friends,” Palladini said. “People are going right back to where the addiction started in the first place.”
The Norfolk Police Department worked in partnership with the district attorney’s office to start a coalition to educate people affected by drug addiction, including preventive education that starts as early as fifth grade.
Though law enforcement is providing resources for the community, Palladini said she isn’t sure how much of an impact it is having.
“As much as we’d like to say we are out there, people are still a little guarded,” she said. “A lot of addicts we encounter aren’t ready to make that decision to get clean.”
Within the department, she said, officers have had a change in perception of drug addiction, coming to see it as a disease rather than a law enforcement issue.
“It’s going to have a trickle-down effect on all people,” Palladini said. “People will start looking at things like mental disorders from a place of greater understanding.”
Kaitlin Junod is a student writer for the Boston University Statehouse Program.