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Suffolk County Police know they can’t arrest their way out of the addiction crisis that has caused nearly 500 fatal overdoses on Long Island since 2016.
So they’re testing a different approach: tipping people off to seek help before a possible arrest occurs.
The SCPD on Monday announced a partnership with the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence on a new drug diversion program called preventing incarceration via opportunities for treatment, or PIVOT for short.
PIVOT is a proactive initiative that seeks out addicts before they get arrested — or overdose, explained police commissioner Timothy Sini at a press conference on Monday morning in Yaphank.
To do so, the SCPD will be referring known drug abusers to the abuse council, which will in turn reach out to the users and their family members to facilitate treatment.
“There’s a long list of different types of intelligence that we’ll be tapping into to make referrals,” said Sini.
“PIVOT is not only an opportunity to divert people away from arrest and from criminal justice,” said the abuse council’s executive director, Steve Chassman, “but it gives people the opportunity to treat the disease that probably leaves them beyond the law in the first place.”
The pilot program, which is modeled after Massachusetts’ Angel Program, will not be funded by taxpayers, but instead by assets forfeited from crimes.
“We are utilizing money that we are seizing from the individuals who are poisoning our streets to help those that are addicted,” Sini said from police headquarters.
As of now, PIVOT is going to run solely within the Sixth Prescient, an area that has seen the most affected by overdoses in the county, according to Suffolk County officials.
“Changes like this is what will bring an end to the crisis,” said the president and CEO of Family and Children’s Association, Dr. Jeffery Reynolds.
Top: SCPD police commissioner Tim Sini holding up the PIVOT referral form of potential addicts during a press conference at police headquarters in Yaphank. (Credit: Nick Esposito)
