Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion [LEAD]

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2020

Bernalillo County’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program is a public safety program in which police officers exercise discretionary authority to divert individuals suspected of low level, non-violent crime driven by unmet behavioral health needs to community based health services instead of arrest, jail and prosecution. LEAD allows officers, at their discretion, to refer such individuals to Bernalillo County employed case managers instead of taking them to jail. In such cases, the charges are not filed and the case manager can work with the individuals to connect them to needed health and social services. The program’s goals are to:1) Reduce the harm a low level drug or other offender causes him or herself, as well as the harm that that individual causes the community; 2) Reduce drug and alcohol abuse; 3) Reduce jail and emergency room recidivism rates for program participants, allowing the criminal justice system to focus on more serious offenders.