The Seminary Police Department in Covington County unveiled a new program last week that will go into effect August 1st. The police department is launching “The Mercy Project” which is a proactive approach to help combat the growing drug arrest problem in their community. Officers made over 300 arrests during 2015 in Seminary. Officers wanted to figure out a way to deter the problem instead of just making arrests and locking addicts up.
Seminary Police Chief Michael Kelly stated in the press conference that jail is not necessarily for everyone and the department would rather start with outreach and recovery to help the addict and their family through the process.
The way the Mercy Projects works is any addict who walks into the Seminary PD with any drugs and/or paraphernalia and asks for help will not be charged. Once the addict asks for help, they will not be charged with a crime but will be assigned a police officer who will help them in their recovery. That first step alone by an addict would have to be difficult for fear that it would be a trick or entrapment. There would have to be complete trust by the addict and vice versa from the officer. The addict must be willing to do their part as well and commit to recovery.
Hats off to the department for this approach and hopefully with the community’s support, this program will be effective. The program is also under the direction of the Seminary Police Chaplain and has partnered with Mercy House of Seminary Baptist Church. Aside from the trained police officers, there is also a “Care Team,” which is comprised of community volunteers who have been trained to help with the recovery process.
Chief Kelly went on to stress that it is not a trick or an attempt at entrapment, but a genuine desire to intervene in in the lives of addicts and their families to help them, not just arrest them.
To my knowledge, Clarke County does not have any type of officer sponsored programs. With an increase in drug arrests in Clarke County (approximately 450 misdemeanor and felony drug arrests per year county wide,) it would be wonderful if this type of program could be started in Clarke County.
Seminary Police Department is like many rural departments. They are operating on a skeleton police force with limited resources, but they have publicly made the commitment to help with the drug problem. Again, the addict and family must be willing to do their part as well for this program to work.
What impresses me about the police department is their commitment of wanting to help those with a drug problem instead of making an arrest, putting an individual into the system or jail only to get passed around without any type of recovery; then released back into society as a statistic.
This department deserves support and kudos to the officers for making this commitment and giving back to the community. I hope this program is successful.
