Police’s ANGEL Project Offers Help for Drug Addiction

(Fall 2016) An initiative pioneered by Gloucester, Massachusetts law enforcement has drawn interest from municipalities around the country. The plan offers treatment instead of jail time for individuals who voluntarily come forward and turn in their drugs and related paraphernalia. Now over 100 police departments are creating their own plans modeled after it. The town’s police chief, Leonard Campanello, began the ANGEL Project after seeing a rise in drug-related deaths, arrests and crime in his city. Money confiscated from drug arrests underwrites the program.

Now, one year after its launch, Gloucester’s new approach is showing results. Since its inception, over 400 individuals have turned to the city’s police department to be immediately connected with a treatment program and paired with a volunteer who assists them on their journey to recovery. The rate of drug-related crime has decreased in Gloucester by almost 30% since the project has been in place.

Researchers studying participants in Gloucester’s program have contacted almost half of the individuals who approached the city’s police department for drug abuse assistance. Data indicates that approximately 70% of those surveyed saw the treatment program through to the end.

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