Beyond Police-Only Responses: Building Police–Community Partnerships for the Evolving Opioid Crisis

Session Description: Over the past decade, law enforcement agencies have played a central role in developing and implementing critical life-saving interventions to address the opioid crisis, especially in response to the rapid escalation of fentanyl-related overdoses beginning in 2013. These innovations include responding to 911 overdose calls, carrying naloxone, conducting post-overdose outreach, and creating police-facilitated pathways to treatment and recovery support, often referred to as deflection. These efforts have saved lives and helped move the field beyond arrest-only responses. This session will examine how police-community partnerships can be strengthened by expanding the role of public health agencies, recovery coaches and peers, mobile outreach programs, families, and other nongovernmental partners in engagement, treatment entry, follow-up after overdose, and reentry support. The session will focus on where community partners can step in and share responsibilities that too often fall by default to law enforcement, while also highlighting the critical roles for police that must be maintained. Panelists will draw on lessons learned from police overdose response, implementation science, and practical experience with deflection and community-based engagement models. The session will identify what makes police-community collaborations effective, sustainable, and scalable; why scalable replication of successful programs often struggle; and how training, coaching, leadership support, and clearer role definition can improve implementation. Policy changes at the federal, state, and local level will be discussed. Attendees will leave with practical takeaways for expanding deflection pathways, strengthening treatment and recovery supports across justice settings, improving low-threshold engagement with people who use drugs, and building partnerships that allow police, public health, and community organizations to operate in the roles where each can be most effective.