BRISTOL – Police in Plymouth County want to proactively prevent opioid-overdose deaths, something a database created by Roger Williams University Criminal Justice Professor Sean Varano and Pamela Kelley, executive director of Kelley Research Associates, are making a reality.
Varano and Kelley have been working with 27 Plymouth County police departments in using their database to direct plain-clothes police follow-ups of overdose calls throughout the county, dubbing the approach the Plymouth County Outreach Critical Incident Management System.
The PCO-CIMS was developed as part of the Plymouth County Outreach Project. The project is a result of a working group, the Plymouth County Drug Abuse Task Force, created in 2015 by District Attorney Timothy Cruz and Sheriff Joseph McDonald. Their aim was to create a working group of law enforcement, health care, treatment, and education leaders to brainstorm effective strategies to address the expanding epidemic, Varano said.
“But at some point, the law-enforcement representatives looked around the room and challenged each other to think creatively about what could be done about the crisis beyond arrest-only strategies,” Varano said.
Their idea: Coordinate outreach visits with recovery specialists where overdose patients are not admitted to treatment. As the model got off the ground in 2016 in places such as East Bridgewater and Plymouth, the police departments realized the need to develop a database system that would allow responding officers to record the information about overdose calls, including the victim’s home address, Varano said.
Varano and Kelley had worked with the Plymouth County Drug Abuse Task Force before, and the members asked for their help. The two developed the database and program model with the support of the district attorney and sheriff, Varano said.
“I think it speaks to the level of collaboration across the policing/law-enforcement sector to support strategies focused on getting people access to treatment,” Varano said.
Using the database, officers responding to an overdose call can communicate to other police departments when someone in their community is in need of outreach. The victim’s home police department then coordinates a plain-clothes officer visit to the victim to extend counseling services.
The system also manages each jurisdiction’s follow-ups, Varano said. It reminds them when a follow-up is due, and it allows them to document the overdose follow-up when it occurs.
The approach is striking at the root of the problem, East Bridgewater Police Chief Scott Allen said. By getting the abuser into treatment,
“We’re not having to go to that person’s house or family home on multiple calls for service because of their underlying substance-abuse disorder. It’s community policing 101,” Allen said.
“The purpose is to get individuals access to information, get them into treatment and stop them from dying. It is not hyperbole to say this is a death-prevention project,” Varano said.
Rob Borkowski is a PBN contributing writer.
