Town of Dover Police Department Joins Morris County Sheriff's Office and Nine Morris County Law Enforcement Agencies in Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI)
Published on August 15, 2019
The town of Dover Police Department is now the 11th law enforcement agency in Morris County to participate in the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI), which allows police officers to take direct action to help individuals struggling with addiction connect with recovery services.
From left, Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon, Dover Mayor James Dodd and Dover Mayor Anthony Smith on August 13, 2019, when the town of Dover passed a resolution to participate in the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI)
Dover Mayor James Dodd and the town Board of Aldermen on Tuesday, August 13, passed a necessary resolution that enables town police officers to participate in PAARI, which Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon first launched in the county on April 3, 2019, as an expansion of his signature Hope One mobile substance use outreach and recovery program.
Under PAARI, individuals who voluntarily walk into a participating police department in Morris County can request help for a substance use addiction, without fear of being arrested. A trained police officer screens the individual and then contacts Daytop New Jersey, a Mendham-based drug and alcohol treatment facility, with a request for a certified peer recovery specialist to immediately meet with the individual to discuss resource, treatment and recovery options.
Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon addresses the town of Dover mayor and board of aldermen on August 13, 2019, about efforts by his office and partner agencies to combat opioid addiction.
Before the enabling resolution was passed, Sheriff Gannon gave Mayor Dodd and the Aldermen an overview of Hope One and PAARI, and how a $332,658 grant from the United States Department of Justice has allowed the Sheriff's Office to expand Hope One with the PAARI program component.
We focus on people without support and on areas where people are vulnerable, Sheriff Gannon said of Hope One at the Board of Aldermen meeting. Since Hope One started on April 3, 2017, its team “ a plainclothes Sheriff's Officer, a mental health clinician and a certified peer recovery specialist “ have made 8,000 contacts and assisted 250 people with accessing substance use recovery and rehabilitation programs or mental health treatment.
The Hope One team also has, free of charge, trained 1,866 people in how to administer Narcan to reverse an opioid-induced overdose. Participation in PAARI, the Sheriff said, will enable police to have a direct role in helping individuals find their way to lives without drug dependency.
It's an exciting time for all of us. It's forward-thinking. It's forward thinking that Dover is the 11th municipality to pass a resolution for this, Sheriff Gannon said.
Dover Police Chief Anthony Smith at the August 13, 2019 meeting of the Dover mayor and board of aldermen
Mayor Dodd commended Sheriff Gannon for launching Hope One and said he has seen, firsthand, the positive impact on the community when Hope One makes a stop at Faith Kitchen, a soup kitchen located inside Trinity Lutheran Church.
I know you're a role model for other counties around the state so I publicly thank you, Mayor Dodd said.
Hope One has served as the model for mobile substance use recovery vehicles in the city of Newark, Cape May, Monmouth and Atlantic counties, and Burlington and Hudson counties are in the process of developing their own mobile programs.
Dover Police Chief Anthony Smith said residents sometimes ask him why police use Narcan to revive individuals from heroin overdoses. He said he responds that he would want one of his own children or a loved one revived from an overdose, the same as any other person would.
This is a direction we want to move in. We want to create these partnerships with the Sheriff, the Morris County Prosecutor's Office, Hope One, CARES, and Daytop, Chief Smith said.