Comments

1
Lisa Daugaard deserves high praise indeed. Her brainchild has not only improved Seattle it has also probably saved a number of lives. LEAD is a proven success and copying it elsewhere will no doubt copy that success. Having said that though it is not a cure all. Participants are selected based on their backgrounds and prospects. I worry that the program effectiveness will be watered down if it becomes just another channel for handling troubled people. It can work for the addicted. It will fail for the mentally ill or sociopaths.
2
Zander, many (perhaps most) of the folks diverted into LEAD also have mental health issues -- in some cases quite serious and it is their mental health problems that underlies their drug use. For folks whose are incapacitated by mental illness the Crisis Solutions Center is certainly a more appropriate option. I think the main point though is that traditional law enforcement is the least appropriate way of dealing with these issues, but that officers can be a very effective portal into better solutions.
3
Gnosses, is there any published evidence to support the assertion "folks diverted into LEAD have mental health issues"? I think we'll need more data before drawing conclusions like that about LEAD. Also the program is opt-in which leads me to think the participants are rational.
4
No published evidence Zander, but I am involved with LEAD (full disclosure) and all I can say is that a significant number of those diverted so far have mental health problems and that a significant amount of time is spent trying to figure out which comes first and is more important: substance use or mental health issues. As far as opt in goes: in the first couple of months folks would decline LEAD and the two main reasons seemed to be that they thought it was drug court or a snitch program. Once word got out that it was neither virtually no one declines.
5
Thanks for responding gnossos, one question I have: Why is this program confined to a geographic region? What if an addict who shows great potential to turn their life around gets arrested on aurora ave n?
6
Smoothie- LEAD began as a proof of concept plan with limited funds and resources. A test area was also chosen to monitor the program with the untested areas acting as a control group. Belltown was chosen because it had a need and the community was supportive of trying a new approach. Full disclosure I was President of the Belltown Community Council when the projected was floated.
7
@5: Zander is exactly correct in his explanation for why LEAD was piloted in Belltown, but in 2013 the city approved funding to expand LEAD to cover all of downtown Seattle (Pioneer Square and the ID especially). That money was reapproved in 2014 for 2015. And the Sheriff's office fully embraced LEAD and is using it on Metro routes and in White Center and Skyway. All this before any concrete evaluation results and based solely on the perceived/qualitative success.

There is considerable interest from both officers and residents in several other neighborhoods for LEAD, but I don't think the political leadership has caught up yet. Perhaps with district based city council races this will change. At least one candidate for city council (Lisa Herbold -- who works for Nick Licata and was instrumental in early support for LEAD) is supporting LEAD expansion.

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