plausible deniability for everybody is a good thing sometimes. reporter: i want to give you an idea of how this remarkable program works. we re here at the gloucester police department. if you re someone who s addicted to heroin, you would walk through these doors over here. and right away, you notice that something s a little different. first of all, you pick up the phone and tell them that you re here because you re a heroin addict. and that would start this whole process in motion of getting an angel assigned to you. but also take a look over here. your needles, this container over here, your paraphernalia, your drugs, they go over here. when you start to walk through these doors now, you re not going into the police station to get arrested but to get help. when we first started this program, it was an end of the war on drugs. and as we started thinking about it, was it really ever a war on drugs, or was it a war on addiction? and i think that we made a statement, at least for o
good thing sometimes. i want to give you an idea of how this remarkable program works. we re here at the gloucester police department. if you re someone who is addicted to heroin, you would walk through these doors over here and right away you would notice something is a little different. pick up the phone and tell them that you re here because you re a heroin addict. this would start this whole process of getting an angel assigned to you. take a look over here. your needles, sharps container over here, paparaphernalia, dru go over here. you start to walk through these doors now you re not going into the police station to get arrested by bu to get help. when we first started this program it was end of the war on drugs. when started thinking about it, was it really ever a war on drugs or was it a war on addiction? and i think we made a statement, at least for our gloucester residents, that seems to have resonated that we are back to working for people who need help. so, they ll come
i want to give you an idea of how this works. here at the gloucester police department, if you are addicted to heroin, you walk through the doors here, and right away, you notice that something is different. first of all, you pick up the phone, and you tell them that you are here because you are a heroin addict, so you have an angel assigned to you. and look at this, the needles, and the sharks container and the paraphernalia and the drugs go over here, and when you walk through the doors here, you are not going over to the get ar reed, but to get help. when we first started the program, it was an end to the war on drug, and when we think about it, was it a war on drugs or addiction? and so we made a statement that at least for our gloucester residents that seems to have resonate d in a lot of differen places that we are back to working for people who need help. so they will come in here. reporter: and the people are showing up. so far this year, almost 300
this has no boundary. reporter: the chief decided on a radical approach, probably best described as the opposite of a war on drugs. he used facebook to make an offer to the citizens of gloucester. if you re a user of heroin or opiates, let us help you. we know you do not want this addiction. we can help you. we have resources that can and will make a difference in your life. do not become a statistic. reporter: we won t arrest you. we will help you. he had no idea if it would work. he had no idea if anyone would listen. he didn t even know if it was legal. did you hesitate? i mean, did you have any concerns about this strategy or putting it out there so boldly? i think the worst thing they could do was fire me. did you talk to your wife about it or anybody else before you hit send? no. this was, you know, plausible deniability for everybody is a good thing sometimes. i want to give you an idea of how this remarkable program works. we re here at the gloucester police dep
gone down 31%. when it comes to shoplifting and breaking and entering and larceny. this next stat is what you were talking about. you want to take some of the money that they give you to adjudicate people. currently it costs $55 to facilitate the treatment. $55. whereas if you wind up arresting them, and putting them through the process and keeping them in custody that is $220 per day. that is the drop of 75% less expensive than putting them through the system. so you want to do that. one of the other really interesting things about your plan, chief, is the fact that you will not arrest somebody if they come to you and they say, i want help. help me. and so you won t arrest them when? if someone presents themselves to the gloucester police department, we refuse to arrest them. if they ask for help, whether they have drugs on them or not, we don t think that the simple