For Immediate Release

Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: john@jgpr.net

Nashville Police Department Joins P.A.A.R.I., Becomes First Partner In North Carolina 

Launches HOPE Initiative Program on Feb. 9

NASHVILLE, N.C. — Police Chief Thomas Bashore announces that the Nashville Police Department has partnered with the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) to launch its HOPE Initiative Program.

Through the department’s program, which began today, Nashville Police has begun offering new addiction recovery initiatives to the community and are working to place residents in need into treatment.

The partnership makes the Nashville Police Department the first P.A.A.R.I. agency in North Carolina to announce the launch of an addiction and treatment program.

Through the HOPE Initiative:

• Any person who enters the Police Department or makes contact with an officer and requests help with their addiction to opiates will be immediately screened into the HOPE Initiative Program.
• If the person who has requested help with their addiction is in possession of drugs or paraphernalia (i.e. needles), it shall be the policy of the Nashville Police Department NOT to charge them.
• An officer will be assigned to the program participant to assist them in getting needed community services.

As part of its partnership with P.A.A.R.I., the Nashville Police Department will seek out those suffering from the disease of addiction and pair them with treatment and recovery centers, drawing from P.A.A.R.I.’s nationwide network and cultivating its own treatment partners locally and elsewhere.

“This was a simple decision for me as a leader in public safety and security. People are dying in every state from the same affliction, and we are in a position to take meaningful actions to help them,” Chief Bashore said. “I am grateful to the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative for bringing this issue to the forefront of the national law enforcement dialog, and I am very hopeful for a productive launch of the HOPE Initiative at the end of the month.”

About P.A.A.R.I.
The Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) was launched to support police departments around the nation as they work to help those suffering from the disease of addiction. The United States faces a nationwide heroin and opioid epidemic, with more people now dying from overdoses than from car accidents in this country. Rather than arrest our way out of the problem of drug addiction, P.A.A.R.I. committed police departments:

• Encourage opioid drug users to seek recovery

• Help distribute life saving opioid blocking drugs to prevent and treat overdoses

• Connect addicts with treatment programs and facilities

• Provide resources to other police departments and communities that want to do more to fight the opioid addiction epidemic

P.A.A.R.I. was created by Gloucester Police Chief Leonard Campanello and John Rosenthal to bridge the gap between the police department and opioid addicts seeking recovery.

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