Struggling with a drug addiction can be especially difficult around the holidays, not only for the addict, but their families as well. That's why an Otsego County police department has decided to offer a new program giving those struggling with substance abuse a way out. Cara Thomas has more about Cooperstown Police Department's involvement with the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative.
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- Typically if you're struggling with a drug addiction, being in a police department is the last place you'd want to be. But starting this holiday season, the Cooperstown Village Police Department is opening it's doors to offer those people help and hope.
"Everybody has a skeleton in their closet and this is one that I found that most everybody has somebody that they know that's addicted to heroin and opiates," said Michael Covert, Cooperstown's Police Chief.
P.A.A.R.I or Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative was started by the Gloucester Police Department in Massachusetts earlier this year. Rather than arresting and charging drug users, they're placing them in in-patient recovery programs.
"I looked at his program, I liked his program, how he thought about it, what he had done with it and from there I contacted them and integrated it here in New York State," said Covert.
According to police, it takes about four to seven weeks to get someone into rehab, but through this program, police are able to find participants a bed within 24 hours.
"When you look at the devastation that substance abuse issues have caused Central New York, to have the police involved is a way to get individuals into treatment a lot quicker," said Stephen McLaughlin, the director of McPike ATC. "The quicker we can get those individuals into treatment, the quicker they can get on with recovery and their lives."
Through P.A.A.R.I, participating law enforcement agencies can utilize more than 250 rehabilitation agencies throughout the country.
There are also several organizations offering financial assistance to help participants pay for rehab and a plane ticket to get there.
"I think this is a very good program, it gets the people away from their normal area, gives them a chance to start over and it gives them a chance to become the person that they used to be," said Covert.
A program that forces law enforcement agencies, families, and rehabilitation facilities to work together, which they say is the key to ending this drug epidemic.
The program officially kicked off Thanksgiving Day. Since then, three people have entered the program, and at least nine others have called the police department for help and are in the process of getting approval.