SCARBOROUGH — The Scarborough Police Department has been awarded a Department of Justice grant in the amount of $286,065 under their comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant and Substance Abuse site-based program. 

The Town Council met Feb. 2 with Scarborough Chief of Police Mark Holmquist to discuss the acceptance of the Department of Justice grant. The council has shown full support for the grant to be used for the department’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program, known as LEAD, program. They hope that the Scarborough Police Department can be role models to other Maine police departments and look to this program as an example to emulate. 

The funding will support and further the work of the police department’s LEAD program. The goal of the program is to address substance abuse disorder, reduce recidivism and increase individual self-sufficiently. LEAD is a community-based diversion program that is aimed at improving public safety and public order by reducing unnecessary criminal justice system involvement. 

“I think this is a great tie into our efforts to provide behavioral health support in addition to our support with the substance use disorder that we’ve been spearheading since 2015 with Operation Hope,” Holmquist said. “It’s a perfect tie into that program and support of that proactive work that we are already doing.”

According to Holmquist the police department applied for the grant program in June and received approval of the grant in December. 

“This grant funding will be fully utilized to support the Scarborough Police Departments law enforcement assisted diversion program or LEAD which was established in November 2021,” he said. “The intent of the LEAD program is provide strategic and proactive ways to divert high risk individuals to a community-based harm reduction intervention for law violations driven by unmet behavioral health needs.” 

The grant provides funding over a three-year period. The grant does not have any matching funding requirements and does not entail any additional commitments following the three-year award period. 

“To date the program has completed nine successful intakes helping to link those individuals to programs addressing any identified unmet needs. If approved by council the program grant award will be utilized to support the following components,” Holmquist said. “The first being hiring a dedicated LEAD case manager who will conduct intakes and assessments, link participants to resources and follow up. The second approval of this is to provide ongoing training and the cost associated with travel for that training for the case manager and the program manager to attend local trainings and one located in Washington, D.C., over the course of the three-year period. The final component of this grant award would provide essential funding to support emergency services of participants including transportation to appointments, temporary housing, clothing and food, telephone service, counseling services for the uninsured individuals and other unmet miscellaneous expenses for the clients of the LEAD program.” 

Marcella Sorg, a researcher with the University of Maine, estimates that 636 people died of drug overdoses last year, a 23 percent increase over the 515 deaths recorded in 2020, according to the Portland Press Herald. Fentanyl, a fast-acting synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin, is driving the deaths, she said. Long mixed with opioids, it is now showing up in cocaine and methamphetamine. 

In addition to working to addressing substand misuse disorder on a local level, the state is also working to address the problem.

“We remain committed to doing everything we can to help Maine people with substance use disorder access treatment, and most important, keep them alive,” said Gordon Smith, the state’s director of Opioid Response. “The OPTIONS initiative is now connecting with Maine people in 14 counties to help prevent overdoses and encourage recovery.

Last year, Governor Janet Mills signed emergency legislation establishing an accidental drug overdose death review panel.

“The new overdose review panel created by Governor Mills, and new data available from the Office of the Attorney General and the University of Maine, will offer greater insight into the opioid epidemic and how we should respond,” Smith said. “As we continue to fight this epidemic, which is more lethal than ever due to powerful drugs like fentanyl and the number of people using alone, we will use every avenue available to support all Maine people, families and communities affected by it.” 

If you know someone that is looking for support, contact Operation HOPE at (Portland Recovery Community Center) at (207) 553-2575 or call 211-Maine or in person Monday through Thursday between 10 a.m. and noon at 102 Bishop St., Portland.  For more information on the LEAD program, contact Police Chief Mark Holmquist at (207) 883-6361.

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