Police Try Treatment, Instead Of Punishment, For Addiction
Photo credit: Kristin Gourlay / RIPR
Police departments in our region and around the country are scrambling to respond to the opioid addiction crisis.
Many have added the overdose rescue drug, Narcan, to their tool belts. Others have stepped up efforts to prosecute heroin dealers. But in Gloucester, Massachusetts, a new program flips policing on its head to help addicts find treatment. In part two of our series on the changing role of police and mental health, Rhode Island Public Radio’s Kristin Gourlay says that, to understand the evolution of police attitudes on this issue, you have to go back several years.