Leonard Campanello, Co-Founder
John Rosenthal, Co-founder & Chairman
One Bridge St., Suite #300
Newton, MA 02458
For Immediate Release
Monday, April 25, 2016
Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: john@jgpr.net
Jeffersontown, Ky. Police Department Joins P.A.A.R.I. To Launch Addiction Recovery Initiative in August
JEFFERSONTOWN, Ky. – Mayor Bill Dieruf and Police Chief Ken Hatmaker announces that the Jeffersontown Police Department will partner with the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) to create and launch an addiction outreach and recovery program.
The announcement comes days after P.A.A.R.I. co-founder and Gloucester Police Chief Leonard Campanello, and P.A.A.R.I. Director John Guilfoil traveled to Jeffersontown to meet with city officials, police chiefs, treatment providers, corrections officials and other leaders in the Louisville Metro Area about creating local addiction recovery initiatives.
Through the department’s program, beginning on Aug. 1, Jeffersontown Police will implement new addiction recovery initiatives and work with P.A.A.R.I. to place participants into treatment. Funding for the program will come from corporate and private donations and asset forfeiture money seized from drug dealers.
“We are honored to be part of such a progressive approach to combating the opioid epidemic by partnering with P.A.A.R.I.,” Mayor Dieruf said. “There has been some great outreach done in our local area, but we know we can always do more. We are optimistic that our relationship with P.A.A.R.I. will make a positive impact on our community by helping us to save lives and get treatment to those who suffer from the disease of addiction.”
With this move, Jeffersontown becomes the 100th P.A.A.R.I. law enforcement partner, and Kentucky becomes the 23rd state with a P.A.A.R.I. partner.
Modeled after the Gloucester ANGEL Initiative, the Jeffersontown ANGEL Program encourages residents who want to overcome their addiction to simply walk into the police station, turn over their drugs and paraphernalia and ask for help. Those who do will not be charged. Instead, they will immediately be placed into a drug treatment program, regardless of financial means or insurance coverage.
The City of Jeffersontown and their Police Department are working with The Healing Place, Volunteers of America, Jefferson County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center/Seven Counties Services, The Morton Center and others in the local area. As well, the department is expanding its treatment resources across the state.
Chief Campanello and John Rosenthal, co-founders of P.A.A.R.I., are pleased to welcome Jeffersontown Police to the program and will work with the department to further their initiatives. They commend Chief Hatmaker, Sergeant Brittney Garrett and the JPD staff for taking the initiative to help those who need it most and for working to change the way law enforcement handles addiction.
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 those struggling with the disease of addiction to 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 police departments and those struggling with the disease of addiction.
###