Editorial: Police having positive impact with treatment-not-jail programs for drug users
Following the ambush that killed five of his police officers last July, Dallas Police Chief David Brown lamented that "we're asking cops to do too much in this country." There is no doubt much truth in the statement. But there's also truth in the observation that police can be pretty good at some functions not traditionally thought of as part of their job description.
Witness the success that some suburban communities are having as police test a new strategy in the war on heroin and opioid abuse - trust.
Our Elena Ferrarin described in a front-page report Tuesday how numerous suburban police departments have willingly taken on the role of "social worker" in certain circumstances to veer away from arresting and imprisoning drug users and toward getting them into treatment.
"This is not traditional law enforcement," acknowledged Mundelein Police Chief Eric Guenther, "but what has traditional law enforcement gotten us in the last 20 or 30 years …?"
And so, many suburban departments - including those in Naperville, Elgin and Rolling Meadows as well as in Mundelein and many other towns - are finding ways to connect some drug users with treatment programs rather than introducing them to - or recycling them in - jail and the criminal justice system.
Not all departments operate such programs the same way. They have varying criteria for determining who may qualify. But they all have the same goal - get help to people who will benefit from it and in the process divert them away from other crimes, like car and home break-ins, that affect the community at large.
And they're built on a notion that may be counterintuitive for many drug users - that the police will help you, not just drag you into the courts.
For Danya Vazquez, who was introduced to the process by two police officers in a hospital waiting room, that wasn't an easy thing to believe. But her leap of faith last October got her into treatment and eventually a Waukegan halfway house, where, she told Ferrarin, she now feels something she hadn't for a long time as a heroin addict, hope.
Scores of drug users in the suburbs have similar stories to tell, authorities say, and scores more may join them if bonds of trust can strengthen.
That's not to say, of course, that police should just stop arresting people and cart them all off to social services agencies instead. But it does show that when police use their judgment to expand the nature of their role, it can have a meaningful impact on lives and communities.
"What is the purpose of a police officer? To help people in need," Naperville Chief Jason Arres told Ferrarin. "Obviously, there is a time for us to catch criminals, but this is a step outside the box for police."
Yes, it's something more to ask of cops, who we well know have plenty on their plates these days. Thankfully, in this case at least, they continue to show they're up to it.