By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

With the Livingston County Sheriff’s Department and Pontiac, Dwight and Fairbury Police on board with Safe Passage, residents of the county struggling with drug addiction have another option to find help.

Dwight Police Chief Tim Henson said he’s hopeful that people will continue to use this option when looking to find help, as the program is helping people in his community already.

“We’ve tried way too long. The ‘arrest, throw in jail, get out and reoffend, arrest, and throw them in jail’ approach doesn’t work and it hasn’t worked for over thirty years, so we’re taking a different approach and hope that many people will take advantage of this program and if we can make a dent in the need for these drugs, we can put some of the suppliers out of business. We rolled out the program July 1 of 2016 and I’m proud to announce, as of today, we’ve had two residents who have come in and have taken advantage of the program that’s been offered to them and I’m hoping for them to complete the program successfully and they can be ambassadors of the program to help out others in our communities,” Henson said.

This program was created to help heroin and opiate addicts get into recovery. Those looking for help can bring drugs and paraphernalia to a participating police department where it will be disposed of. The individual will be directed to an appropriate treatment plan and will not be arrested or charged with a crime.