GOSHEN – Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler says 70 percent of all crime committed in the county has some ties to illegal drugs. With that startling statistic in mind, Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney announced on Tuesday he has introduced legislation that would create a Department of Justice grant program to fund pre-booking diversion programs in counties designated as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas. They would include all of Maloney’s district – the counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam and Westchester.
Port Jervis Police Chief William Worden, president of the Orange County Police Chief’s Association, was with Maloney and other local police chiefs in Goshen to back the proposal. He said opioid addiction has changed public safety, has changed our communities.
“Opioid addiction such as heroin and pain medications has raised to epidemic numbers in our communities, not only here in Orange County, but across New York State and across our nation,” Worden said. “When untreated, heroin addiction sadly leads an individual to a path of destruction to themselves individually, to their family, to their education, their employment, their community, their health, and of course, their life. All too often many who are addicted to heroin get involved in committing crimes.”
Allowing police the discretion to offer non-violent drug addicts diversionary programs would save money as compared to the cost of the criminal booking process and it could help people escape the cycle of drug abuse of crime to feed it, he said.
Maloney proposed the legislation after studying similar programs in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Seattle, Washington and Albany, New York.
Local police departments do not necessarily have to wait for federal funding. The congressman said they can implement the program at any time on their own.
