Butler County is joining an initiative from the state’s attorney general office to help those struggling with addiction.
The program is known as the Law Enforcement Treatment Initiative, and it aims to include those in law enforcement like police officers and probation officers to help connect the addicted to treatment services.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry said at a press conference in the Butler County Courthouse that continually prosecuted individuals for drug possession crimes is no longer the only answer.
“WE cannot arrest our way out of this problem. It is so imperative that we change the way we do things. No one was recognizing in the past, what they struggled with and why they were in court time and time again is that they had an addiction,” Henry said. “An addiction that demands treatment.”
Butler City Police Chief Bob O’Neill says this is a part of a two-prong approach to help address drug issues.
“The first prong is that police should be out there working trying to get the bad guys off the street,” O’Neill said. “And then the LETI program, which clearly shows us a way and structure for a way for people who are really in need.”
Butler is the 27th county to join the initiative, which first started in 2018.
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