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Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council <br />Monday, Septeinber 25, 2017 <br />Page 12 <br />What we have done is we have modeled this after other cities around the country that have done <br />this. The basic premise of this is that if a person comes to the Police Department with an • <br />addiction and says, I need help, you have to do soinething to help me, I am at the end of my rope, <br />we won't arrest them. We have a way to get them into a treatment program and get them help. <br />It's a Good Sainaritan program. Through the Drug Enforcement Unit, they have identified a <br />coordinator who will work with the person who coines to us to get them into a treannent program <br />and we will actually put them at the top of the list so that they can bypass the process that they <br />will go through if they have gone on their own to go for treatment. <br />Very often these treatment programs are very hard to get into, simply because there are not <br />enough beds. This coordinator, who works with the DEU, can bypass that process and put them <br />at the top of the list. It doesn't cost us anything as a police department to do this other than a <br />little .bit of time to give them some compassion, fill out an intake form and connect them with the <br />proper person who is going to take them along this step. There are some other things involved <br />with getting them some volunteers who will work with them, much like AA, someone who will <br />sponsor them and guide them down that road. <br />This is something that we as the SPAN Cfiiefs have recognized as the next step in the process we <br />have to do, as something we are going to try to do to help stop this opiate addiction process that <br />is happening in this area, recognizing that we can't just keep arresting and arresting and <br />arresting. The violence that comes out of this drug addiction problem is escalating. Our SWAT <br />team and our DEU are just active beyond belief. We just have to take another step in this <br />process and this is what we are going to try to do. We are going to be training with this <br />coordinator and we are hoping to put the process into place in the beginning of December. <br />Right now, that's the basic information I have for you. As I get more information, I will <br />certainly pass it on to you. At this point, I don't even have statistics as to what kind of success <br />rate this program has seen because it's fairly new. But the bottom line is, if this saves one person, <br />I guess it's worth trying. <br />Council President Saponaro asked, so the coordinator coordinates with the Drug Enforcement <br />Unit. Where is the coordinator coming from, or trained from? <br />Chief Edelman replied, from one of the local agencies that sponsor the program. <br />Council President Saponaro asked, and in terms of what we hear about drug addiction is that <br />insurance companies cover very little and there's always such an issue with that that people can't <br />afford to get help. Do you have any information that? <br />Chief Edelman replied, if they don't have insurance, they will go through Medicaid or the <br />coordinator would work with them as to a third party payer. As far as cost to the Village, there is <br />no cost, other than our time trying to help them get some kind of treatment: <br />Mr. Williams asked, Chief, you mentioned increase in violence, could you expand upon that as it <br />relates to addiction?