This initiative, called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD®) is built on an approach that understands that these issues are complex and difficult to easily improve, recognizes that behavior change is often a messy and lengthy process, and acknowledges that individual and systemic barriers often require a true “meeting of a person where they’re at.”

How does it work?

In LEAD, individuals who would typically be arrested and jailed for low-level offenses often driven by psychosocial challenges are instead diverted to harm reduction-based case management and outreach services. One key feature of the project is the continuous communication loop that occurs post-diversion between case management staff, service providers, LEAD stakeholders, and the Albany Police Department. This allows all parties in this communication loop to understand the individual needs of the participant and the importance of meeting the participant where they are at in a non-judgmental, non-coercive manner. Unlike many other models, services delivered to LEAD participants are extremely active and focused on engagement.

What Does Albany LEAD Seek to Accomplish?

• LEAD aligns its goals with the following principles:
• Reorient government’s response to safety, disorder, and health-related problems.
• Improve public safety and public health through research based, health oriented and harm reduction intervention
• Reduce the number of people entering the criminal justice system for low level offenses related to drug use, mental health, sex work, and extreme poverty
• Address racial disparities in the front end of the criminal justice system
• Sustain funding for public health responses to behavioral health issues by capturing and reinvesting justice system savings
• Strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and the community