First Police Deptartment in Westchester County to participateThe Yorktown Police Department is the first Westchester County law enforcement agency to join the Hope Not Handcuffs addiction recovery program that steers substance abusers into treatment.
“It’s for people who are struggling with addiction who really have nowhere else to turn,” Yorktown police Chief Robert Noble said today at police headquarters. “They need to know that there’s a place of safety for everybody in our community, and that’s your police department.”
Anyone seeking help with a substance addiction can come to the Yorktown Police Department at 2281 Crompond Road and ask for help from the Hope Not Handcuffs program. The individuals requesting help will be treated with respect and compassion. A call will be made to a program volunteer known as an angel who will come to the police station and work with the individual requesting help to find addiction resources and treatment.
Hope Not Handcuffs-Hudson Valley is a pre-arrest diversion program of the Tri-County Community Partnership, which runs the program in several Hudson Valley counties. The program’s goal is to foster collaboration among law enforcement, community organizations, volunteers and health care providers to find viable treatment options for anyone seeking to reduce a substance dependency.
Hope Not Handcuffs-Hudson Valley started about a year and a half ago in Orange County and it has expanded to about 25 police departments with another six departments in the process of joining. The group has placed more than 350 people into treatment through police departments.
“We are thrilled and excited to be able to expand throughout Westchester and build our angel volunteers,” said Annette Kahrs, Hope Not Handcuffs-Hudson Valley’s program director. “We have relationships with treatment facilities all over the mid-Hudson region and we have been able to get everyone who has asked for help successfully placed.”
Noble warned drug dealers that Hope Not Handcuffs is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. “If you’re out here dealing or if you’re out here doing something illegal with narcotics and pushing this poison, the men and women behind me in uniforms, they will continue to do their jobs to keep this community as clean and as safe as we can,” said Noble.
Yorktown Supervisor Matt Slater thanked the police department for making its offices available to people struggling with substance abuse. “When I worked in the state Senate I traveled the state as part of the task force on heroin and opioid addiction,” said Supervisor Slater. “People needed a safe haven to go to in that small window they have when they are seeking help. Now we’re going to have it right here in the Town of Yorktown.”
