PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Police Department wants to do more than arrest drug addicts, according to its chief.
It wants to help them quit.
But the agency would need assistance from volunteers, Police Chief Terry Gallagher told about 30 people at a meeting of the Port Angeles Citizen Action Network, referred to as PA CAN, on Thursday night.
Acknowledging that arresting and incarcerating drug addicts has not reduced the prevalence of illicit substances, the Police Department is exploring adoption of the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative — the first and only agency west of Texas to do so.
The program has been adopted mostly by police agencies on the East Coast to date, especially in New England, where opiate addiction is rampant, but also in the South and Midwest.
“I think it would be really beneficial for the people in this community to listen to another perspective on how to approach the drug issue, heroin specifically,” Gallagher said.
Started in Gloucester, Mass.
The recovery initiative, referred to as PAARI, was created in 2015 by Gloucester, Mass., Police Chief Leonard Campanello to bridge the gap between the police department and opioid addicts seeking recovery.
The program is a revolutionary new way to fight the war on drugs by doing something about the demand, not just the supply, Gallagher said.
Under Campanello’s plan, drug addicts who ask the police department for help immediately will be taken to a hospital and placed in a recovery program instead of being arrested and jailed.
In Gloucester, police “decided that they would provide, within their police department, intake resources for their community,” Gallagher said.
“They recognized what all of us cops recognize: We have spent the last 30 years involved in a war on drugs, throwing people in jail and filling up our prisons.”
As a result, “our jails are full, and we’ve got a horrible heroin problem,” he added.
“So maybe we ought to think about” how to change the strategy.
“What if we had the ability to steer [addicts] toward some kind of social service that was helpful to them?” Gallagher asked.
And so, “for us to look at a different model from a law enforcement perspective, in my mind, is the smart thing to do,” he said.
How it works
Rather than arrest their way out of the problem of drug addiction, the initiative commits participating police departments to:
■ Encourage opioid drug users to seek recovery.
■ Help distribute life-saving opioid-blocking drugs such as naloxone to prevent and treat overdoses.
■ Connect addicts with treatment programs and facilities.
Logistics
Before the program can be launched in Port Angeles, there are several logistical issues that must be sorted out, Gallagher said.
“The police department has the facility, we have knowledge of the people, we can provide a certain degree of leadership, but we can’t do it all,” he said.
Chief among concerns is identifying addicts and their families, coordinating efforts to reach out to addicts and their families, and funding the cost of transporting addicts to treatment centers and providing treatment, Gallagher said.
“If you show up to the police department and you are ready to go to inpatient treatment, I would love to get you there, but I lack the capacity to do that,” he said.
“The police department can’t do any more. If you ask the sheriff’s department, they will tell you the same thing. Nobody has got the staff to dedicate to a whole new program.”
That can be overcome with the help of volunteers, he said.
“The only way this program is going to fly is if the community embraces it and the community gets involved,” he said.
Cogs already in place
“We have almost all the ingredients” needed to launch the initiative locally, but “we don’t have them all connected together,” Brian Smith, deputy police chief, said during the meeting.
That includes the support of PA CAN, which was founded in June to address the scourge of opioid addiction in Port Angeles.
Additionally, Port Angeles police already carry naloxone auto injectors while in service.
Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that works by reversing the depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system caused by opiates, and can counteract overdoses long enough to summon medical help.
Change of command
Implementing the initiative may be delayed by Gallagher’s retirement March 4, Smith said.
“That is going to slow everything at the police department while that process takes place,” he said.
“It isn’t going to last forever. It will be all resolved by May at the latest, but that is going to have an impact.”
For more information, see www.paariusa.org.
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Reporter Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
