On June 20, The Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI) hosted a virtual statewide convening among Minnesota law enforcement agencies, treatment providers, county public health officials, perspective PAARI partners, and social workers. This convening was designed to allow attendees to learn about highlighted PAARI model programs in the state and to share advice and best practices.
The convening began with Zoe Grover-Scicchitano, Executive Director of PAARI, introducing Chief Tate of the Shakopee Police Department and highlighting his involvement with PAARI and his work in deflection programming. Shakopee PD joined PAARI back in 2016 and has been a star performer in offering scholarships to treatment for individuals with substance use disorder. The department recently awarded its 50th Recovery Assistance Program scholarship in April (More HERE), and has received a total of 82 applications for their program. “Our goal was to get people in treatment, to get over that hump. We have been doing this successfully since 2016,” said Chief Tate.
This year, Chief Tate spearheaded the initiative to gain more Minnesota PAARI partners. Due to combined efforts from himself and PAARI staff, the non-profit gained 16 Minnesota-based police department partners in 2023 to date. This uptick in partner sign-ups was the catalyst for Tuesday’s convening.
At the meeting, Chief Tate commended his experience working with PAARI and emphasized the importance of Minnesota-based public safety and treatment providers meeting in spaces like these. He spoke about funding opportunities through the Public Safety Funding initiative in Minnesota and the Opioid Settlement Funding. Chief Tate impressed upon the fact that Minnesota law enforcement has never had this many opportunities, from a funding standpoint, to begin a PAARI model deflection program.
In the state, opioid overdoses are on the rise. From Memorial weekend to June 10, there was a record 2-week stretch of overdoses and a record amount of Naloxone administered. “Things aren’t getting better. We need to find different ways to attack this crisis,” said Chief Tate on the recent rise in cases.
Following Chief Tate’s address, Brittney Garrett, Director of Public Safety and Outreach at PAARI, thanked Chief Tate for his leadership in the state. She then spoke about the importance of police and public health partnerships, SAMHSA’s Sequential Intercept Model, various PAARI models, and a brief history of the organization. Travis Rapoza, PAARI Program Manager, then jumped in to speak briefly about Opioid Settlement Funds and to highlight the guide he created on the topic.
Mark Elliot, current Police Chief of the Northfield Police Department, then presented on Rice County’s Rural Opioid Epidemic Response Model, a system that has been three years in the making. Chief Elliot has over 31 years of law enforcement experience and has served on many regional and state-level boards and working groups focused on law enforcement and public employee matters.
Chief Elliot emphasized the importance of involving many different players to respond to this epidemic in his county. He noted that not only does his program provide people with treatment, but also access to housing, and other necessary needs. When speaking about the process of creating his county’s Opioid Epidemic Response Model, Chief Elliot noted, “We needed to answer two main questions. How do we interact with people where they are at? How do we reach them before they are in jail and get them into recovery?”
Teri Dose, a social worker in the Community Outreach Team embedded within the Rochester Police Department, then spoke about her role and expertise in the field. Before working at Rochester PD, Teri worked as a mental health worker for 36 years and notably worked as a social worker in the Olmsted County Jail for 5 of those years. Teri touted the effectiveness of pretreatment beds and highlighted some recent successes in her Police Assisted Recovery (PAR) program relating to the topic.
The event came to a close as Dan Meloy, Director of Operations at O2SL & QRT National, spoke about National Deflection Week, the upcoming week of deflection programming occurring July 16 – 22, 2023.
The convening was attended by 36 professionals from the below organizations:
- Belle Plaine Police Department
- Cordata
- Dakota County Public Health
- Eden Prairie Police Department
- Faribault Police Department
- Hennepin County / Eden Prairie PD
- HIDTA
- MN Adult & Teen Challenge
- NADCP
- Northfield Police Department
- NorthStar Regional
- O2SL and QRT National
- Olmsted County
- RAD
- Rep. Angie Craig
- Savage Police Department
- Scott County Human Services
- Scott County Sheriff’s Office
- Shakopee Police Department
- St Paul Police Department
The next Minnesota Convening will be held on September 19th at 12:00 p.m. CST/1:00 p.m. EST. You can register for the call HERE. PAARI hopes to see you there!
Written by, Isabella Nowak
