By Pam Wright
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
When it comes to dealing with addiction, local police are about to get more pro-active.
That’s thanks to a pilot project that will see an addictions therapist paired with an officer to handle calls related to social disorder stemming from substance abuse.
According to Chatham-Kent Police Service Chief Kirk Earley, the Ministry of the Solicitor General is funding the effort for a two-year period under a Mobile Crisis Response Team grant. The CKPS will collaborate with the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance on the initiative.
Some of the work will be responding to calls, while some of it will be pro-active.
“Social disorder is what everybody’s seeing,” Earley told The Voice in a recent interview, noting the behaviours of the addicted and homeless – sometimes associated with crime – arouse fear in the public.
“They (the team) will go around and proactively deal with people who need help from a mental-health perspective,” Earley said, adding they’ll go to locations where people are struggling with addiction in an attempt to help them access resources, such as treatment.
Typically, he said, a plain-clothes officer will travel with the therapist in an unmarked vehicle.
Earley said the new project will be similar to the existing CKPS mobile crisis unit where a police officer is paired with a psychiatric nurse to answer mental-health calls. That program has been running successfully in C-K for a decade.
According to Earley, an officer will accompany the therapist to provide safety and will be able to pivot to other service calls if needed.
Plus, said Earley, the project allows police to learn from the therapist to better equip them to deal with addiction on the street.
Earley said many Ontario police services are experimenting with similar programs, noting the CKPS project is patterned in part after a successful effort undertaken by Windsor police.
The new year will also see CKPS increase its presence in Chatham’s downtown, where officers will conduct additional foot patrols to engage with citizens and business owners.
If successful, the chief said increased patrols may be added to other downtown areas in the municipality.
Increased police presence helps deter crime, Earley said.
