Sheriff shares successes of Office of Neighborhoods

Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary provided the mayor and Monroe City Council with an update on the Office of Neighborhoods, a unit created last year that prioritizes community policing, during the council's Tuesday, July 26, meeting.

A longtime advocate for community policing, Trenary created the Office of Neighborhoods to help engage residents through collaborative programs like Block Watch and National Night Out.

Additionally, the program incorporates an emerging strategy that pairs law enforcement officers with embedded social workers, who are able to ride along with deputies and provide services during contact with high-needs Snohomish County residents. The program consists of a sergeant, two deputies and two social workers, and was crafted to help address the rising number of residents struggling with things like mental illness, drug addiction and homelessness.-á -á -á

It is something they hope to grow, Trenary said.

"We've seen great success,GÇ¥ the sheriff said. "We're hoping that we'll be able to expand in other parts of the county.GÇ¥

Trenary has been in law enforcement for more than 27 years, 25 of which have been with the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office. He worked his way up through the ranks, serving as a patrol officer, lieutenant, chief of police, captain and now the elected sheriff.

Law enforcement battled a fierce meth epidemic during the 1990s, he said, labeling it "horrific.GÇ¥ But, as bad as it was, it pales in comparison to what the officers are seeing with heroin today, he said.

"Call it a public health epidemic, call it a public safety issue; we have not seen the kind of numbers in terms of drug abuse that we're seeing now in Snohomish County,GÇ¥ Trenary said.

Snohomish County has been hit particularly hard, he added.-á

"Unfortunately Snohomish County currently ranks in the top three,GÇ¥ Trenary said. "And how we get there is through overdoses and deaths, which is obviously not the statistic that we want to be using.GÇ¥

According to a report released by the Snohomish Health District in 2015, from 2011 through 2013, Snohomish County experienced "unusually high numbers of deaths involving heroin.GÇ¥ It referred to opioid addiction as a "real epidemic in Snohomish County,GÇ¥ stating one out of every five heroin deaths in the state occurred in Snohomish County from 2011 through 2013.

Coupled with the rising numbers of homeless individuals who suffer from mental illness, the sheriff's office had to change the way it did policing, Trenary said. The Office of Neighborhoods' embedded social worker model is analogous to the Community Resource Paramedic program implemented last year by Fire Districts 3, 7 and 8, in that it takes a proactive approach at getting to the root of the issue. The embedded social worker is able to connect directly with residents who are struggling, working with them to see if they need detoxification services, treatment or other forms of assistance.

This differs from the past routine of taking them to jail and seeing them released the next day.

The Snohomish County Jail has become the largest mental health hospital in Snohomish County, Trenary said, which it was never intended to be. Having social workers work hand-in-hand with the deputies is helping to shift that dynamic.

"The social worker has been really good for us,GÇ¥ he said. "Not only is it a subject matter expert that looks at a problem different than law enforcement looks at it, but we're finding that they can serve to help us with training.GÇ¥

Snohomish County, particularly in the southern part, has robust homeless communities, Trenary said. Rather than performing a sweep and incarcerating residents for trespassing, the Office of Neighborhoods unit will go into those areas in an attempt to find out if residents are willing to receive services. Typically, when a law enforcement officer enters a homeless camp, its residents are more inclined to flee than seek help. It's a shift in perception, Trenary said.

The embedded social workers are helping to change that perception.

The sheriff's office works collaboratively with numerous service providers around the state, so there is no delay once a candidate needing assistance is identified.

"If an individual ' and it happens almost daily ' says, "Hey, I want help,' we get them help right now, that day,GÇ¥ Trenary said. "We have relationships with providers throughout the state of Washington.GÇ¥

They pick them up, help them collect their belongings and, in most cases, they take them to the nearest state department of licensing office to get them photo identification. A person cannot receive services without some form of photo identification, Trenary said, so that's where they start. -á -á

"So we get them picture ID and, if the day goes well, we get them delivered to whatever type of facility they need,GÇ¥ Trenary said. "In almost every case it's some type of addiction.GÇ¥

The unique thing about the Office of Neighborhoods is that the story doesn't end when they drop the individual off at detox or treatment. The sheriff's office maintains a connection with the individual, staying in contact with the facility, so they know if and when a person has successfully completed the program. Once they complete it, the sheriff's office is there at graduation.

Next, they work to connect them with housing resources and places to get job training. The idea behind the model, Trenary said, is to identify the core issue, correct it and return them to society. It's far more cost effective than continuing to incarcerate and release, he said.

Snohomish County is lacking in available services, he said, so having the social workers there to provide other alternatives has helped to streamline the process.

"We see a lot of good coming out of this,GÇ¥ Trenary said. "My hope is that we'll continue to expand the program.GÇ¥

For more information about the Office of Neighborhoods, visit http://snohomishcountywa.gov/311/Office-of-Neighborhoods.