Kewanee Deputy Chief Stephen Kijanowski and Det. Jim Mock made an appearance at the Methodist Church Saturday, Sept. 30. The invitation came by way of the Methodist Church’s Health and Wellness Team. The two Kewanee officers came to inform and answer questions about the department’s latest program, Drug and Alcohol Addiction Response Team (DAART).
The KPD has a broad background in the area of narcotics. The department has been a member of the Black Hawk Area Task Force since the early 2000s. The KPD Street Crime Unit, created in 2008, was designed with the hope of reducing crime rates, something it accomplished temporarily, Dept. Chief Kijanowski said.
“But when people get out of jail, the crime rate goes back up again,” he said. “We started the street crime unit to make arrests and get criminals off the street, but there are underlying causes, such as mental illness and drugs.”
The idea for DAART was modeled loosely after a Geneseo Police program. Although not exactly the same, Kijanowski said they borrowed some of their ideas to create their own program. The purpose is to get to the root causes of crime, which are often drug and alcohol addiction and mental health issues.
The program’s goal is to offer a more direct and sustained approach to the underlying causes of crime and promote mental well-being, treatment and recovery for addiction and means for people with those issues to cope.
Kijanowski admitted that what the police department was doing before wasn’t working.
“We’d drop them off at the ER and then see them again the next week,” he said. “This (program) goes beyond arresting people.”
Det. Mock, who acts as the DAART Officer, sees that as an issue as well. “The problem before is that we would drop them off at OSF, they would be out the next day and wouldn’t get the help they needed.”
Mock has already seen the benefits of the program with his clients with whom he’s established trust. “People are seeking me out and now they are coming to me,” he said.
The KPD applied for the Rural Violent Crime Reduction Initiative Grant and was awarded $200,000 for their unique approach to crime reduction. Of that amount, $78,000 will be used for salaries, $41,000 for consultant fees and $40,000, which has already been used to purchase a minivan as transportation for the program’s clients.
DAART, which began in June of this year, is already establishing partnerships with several area organizations including the Henry & Stark County Health Departments, OSF Healthcare, Bridgeway, the Henry County Drug Court and the Henry County Mental Health Alliance.
Four officers from the KPD have received a 40-hour training in crisis intervention, Kijanowski said, and it’s made a difference to many of the past offenders in which the officers have come in contact.
“They have dealt with police their whole life and are really accepting of the help,” he said, adding that this new approach at policing includes the criminal law enforcement side and now the treatment side.
Since its inception the new team has served nine clients. Six of those clients are currently active. They have transported three for inpatient care and one was transported out of county services.
A learning curve has been required for the program, Kijanowski told the group. The program was created by the department with Kewanee’s needs in mind, but the officers are learning as they go. They are still working at adding partnerships, which could lead to more services.
“We have a lot of good people and a lot of good groups working for the same goal,” Kijanowski said.
Community organizations are more than welcome to assist with small contributions such as personal hygiene or care packages, he said. In addition, if organizations wanted to band together, they could provide the community with something big, such as a drop-in center, a place for people with addictions and mental health issues to go for laundry or just a safe place to rest. Several other area cities have added drop-in centers to their community, he said.
“I’m a firm believer in that I want to put drug dealers in prison but if you have a drug addiction, I want to get you help. But if the issue is drug addiction, I don’t think prison is the right place for you,” he said.
