Sustain and expand Allegheny County's Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program (LEAD)

Allegheny County proposes to expand its Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program to 19 additional municipalities and eight (8) additional community organizations. LEAD creates a pathway for law enforcement to divert individuals struggling with substance use or mental health needs accused of low-level crimes away from arrest and toward case management.  The program also refers people at-risk of arrest to the same case management. Project activities include onboarding new municipalities and community organizations to the initiative, expanding and supporting case management in providing quality case management to municipalities, ensuring quality communication about LEAD, and engaging with high-level government stakeholders to change to health care, law enforcement and human services systems. ILEAD aims to prevent individuals with persistent behavioral health and social service needs, from encountering the criminal legal system, increase the municipalities connected to substance use recovery services, and reduce the impact of substance use on communities in Allegheny County. The intended beneficiaries of the program are individuals with substance use or mental healthcare needs with repeated low-level arrests. The Allegheny County Department of Human Services will oversee the initiative, including two subawardees, CONNECT and Passages to Recovery.