Taking action

Rutland Police Chief James Baker had a message for the people of Springfield on Monday evening: It gets better.
Related story:
Rutland uses shared vision to fight back against drugs and crime
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140924/OPINION01/709249980

Published September 24, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Taking action Rutland Police Chief James Baker had a message for the people of Springfield on Monday evening: It gets better. He was talking to a crowd of about 200 concerned citizens about Rutland’s approach to the problem of drug addiction and crime. Rutland has not solved its problem, but it has taken steps that may serve as an example to other communities looking for reason to hope. Baker described the data-based mapping program that the city has used to pinpoint trouble spots where drug dealing and related crimes are occurring. The benefit of the mapping program is that it allows police to focus their limited resources to where the problem actually exists. It also helps define the problem so residents are not left with a shapeless sense of unease, as if the entire community has somehow become afflicted. Also, the city has launched Project VISION, which seeks to enlist the entire community in a broad effort, not just to crack down on lawbreakers, but to focus on community betterment. An important component of the project is to work to reclaim neighborhoods by targeting derelict housing and improving the cityscape in affected neighborhoods. The northwest neighborhood in Rutland, which is the locus of much crime, has been the site of a community day during which people gathered for a barbecue, music and other events, conveying the message that the neighborhood is about far more than crime. Other elements of the Rutland project include the effort in the courts to direct defendants with abuse problems toward treatment rather than jail time. Statewide, treatment is gaining favor over jail as a positive response to the drug problem. Of course, successful treatment requires that treatment options be available and the new clinic in Rutland that dispenses methadone and other opiate substitutes has proven to be an important part of the remedy. About 400 people come each day to receive medication, and Baker has seen crime numbers in the city fall, likely in part because of the clinic. It is shocking to learn that the dimensions of the problem are as extreme as that, but those hundreds of people might otherwise be facing the desperate demands of their addictions if the clinic were not available. All of these programs together can help a community come to terms with the problem of drug addiction. But the cement that holds the whole effort together is a positive community spirit and faith that improvement is possible. Springfield’s civic leadership took a step to kindle that faith in inviting Baker and Mayor Christopher Louras to Springfield to talk about the problem. They need to take the next step in enlisting all parts of the community — law enforcement, health care, education, social services, the courts, town government. One of the essential premises of the new approach to drug abuse is the realization that addiction is an issue of public health. Law enforcement has been leading the way in pressing the point that we cannot arrest our way out of the drug problem. People harmed by drug abuse are not some alien criminal class. They are our neighbors, friends, family members from whom a tragic toll is being taken. The war on drugs of the past few decades has filled our prisons without solving the problem. Now, we are beginning to marshal our resources for the treatment that will be required to curb the demand for drugs, which will in turn curb the trade in drugs and the criminality it involves. This new direction has been embraced at the highest levels of government in Vermont, but the work to create effective programs remains to be done at the community level. The Agency of Human Services is trying to focus state resources, but effective action requires coordinated, committed, broad-based action from people in the neighborhoods and in the towns across the state. It is starting to happen.