The Fayetteville Police Department took a chance on starting a law enforcement-assisted diversion program a decade ago.
Since 2016, officers have been connecting people suspected of low-level drug offenses with behavioral health treatment instead of putting them in jail.
Fayetteville was the first police department in the South and the fourth in the country to implement the program, commonly called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD). It served 140 local people last year, and officials say it contributed to the city’s 10% drop in crime.
Now, state officials and local law enforcement departments want to replicate Fayetteville’s success.
The N.C. General Assembly allocated $1.5 million to expand LEAD across the state. The North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, which manages the program, will help Harnett, Robeson, Gaston, and New Hanover counties, and the cities of Greensboro, Wilmington, and Albemarle, start or grow their own programs.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services and North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition selected the areas, which they said are underserved and lack the resources to operate LEAD on their own.
“For many years, the only tool we had was to arrest,” Fayetteville police Chief Roberto Bryan told a crowd gathered at City Hall to celebrate the expansion on Tuesday. “Today, because of LEAD, our officers have a bridge and a tool that addresses the root causes behind the calls for services that we respond to.”
Fayetteville isn’t the only place in North Carolina with LEAD. Waynesville, Mooresville, Statesville, and Wilmington also have programs, along with New Hanover, Catawba, Watauga, and Burke counties.
LEAD expansion is part of Gov. Josh Stein’s executive order directing the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services and other state agencies to improve behavioral health care for those involved in the criminal justice system. Stein signed the order on February 5.
Stein, a Democrat, was in Fayetteville on Tuesday for the celebration. An early supporter of LEAD, Stein was the state’s attorney general when he visited the police department in 2017 to learn more about the program’s impact on the opioid epidemic.
LEAD’s expansion follows the General Assembly’s passing of House Bill 307, also called Iryna’s Law. The legislation, signed into law by Stein, set higher standards for determining bail for people accused of violent offenses, and eliminated bail in some cases. It also reinstated the death penalty.
The law is named after Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who was stabbed to death on Charlotte’s light rail system last year. The man charged in her death, Decarlos Brown Jr., reportedly has a history of mental health problems.
On Tuesday, Stein said the state has “seen what happens” when mental health issues go untreated.
“Let’s keep building systems that work, and keep giving law enforcement the tools that they need,” Stein said, “because that’s how, together, we’re going to build a North Carolina that’s safer, stronger, and healthier.”
‘It Takes a Village’
LEAD is associated with lower rates of arrests and citations after at least six months of participation, according to a 2022 evaluation of North Carolina’s programs by Duke University School of Medicine.
In Fayetteville, the program helped a homeless woman with a substance use disorder and mental health issues regain custody of her children, find stable housing, and get a job, according to Zaira Scott, who oversees homelessness code enforcement for the police department.
Elyse Powell, executive director of the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, recalled a female participant who found her way to LEAD after being hospitalized for an overdose. Powell said the program helped the woman, who now manages a store, find housing and resolve a child custody case.
Another female participant had a pending drug charge and unstable housing. LEAD helped her access medications for opioid use disorder and enroll in vocational rehabilitation, according to Powell.
“Today, she is 23 years old and working as a certified nursing assistant, thriving independently and helping others,” Powell told the crowd on Tuesday.
Community partners make success possible, Bryan said. Cape Fear Valley Health, the nonprofit behavioral health care provider SouthLight, and Fayetteville Comprehensive Treatment Center help LEAD participants access treatment. Fresh Start Housing and others connect them with housing, food, employment, and other services.
“How LEAD is set up, it takes us back to that old cliche saying, ‘It takes a village,’” said Eva Barrett, Cumberland County’s LEAD coordinator.
Cumberland County and Fayetteville have collectively used $509,000 of national opioid settlement money to pay for LEAD and associated programs, like family drug treatment court, according to spending plans published by CORE-NC, North Carolina’s community opioid response engine.
The county and Fayetteville will collectively receive over $36 million from settlements with drug makers and marketers accused of worsening the opioid crisis. The first payment came in 2022, and the money will continue through 2038.
Cumberland County saw its largest one-year decrease in overdose deaths between 2024 and 2025, but it still has one of the highest overdose death rates in the state, data shows.
“We can’t arrest our way out of addiction. We need treatment and recovery services so that people can get well, follow the law, and contribute to their communities,” Stein said. “That’s exactly what Fayetteville and Cumberland County have done for many years, using opioid settlement funds to grow their LEAD program, which has long been a model for the rest of the state.”
LEAD Across the State
The Robeson County Sheriff’s Office operated a similar program called S.A.F.E. before joining the LEAD expansion.
“To start a program like this, you need two things,” Lt. Hollis McNeil, one of two sheriff’s deputies who run the program, said during the Tuesday event. “It’s not money. It’s love first and compassion.”
Health officials hope that every North Carolina county will eventually have LEAD or similar diversion programs, according to Kelly Crosbie, assistant secretary for the state’s Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Services.
But there are barriers to care. Many of North Carolina’s mental health hospitals are understaffed, N.C. Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai told event attendees.
Almost every county in the state has a shortage of mental health professionals, the state Department of Health and Human Services said. By 2033, North Carolina is expected to need nearly 12,500 nurses, according to the UNC Program on Health Workforce & Research.
North Carolina will get $213 million from the federal Rural Health Transformation Program, which state officials say could expand crisis services and increase the number of providers in rural areas.
The state still doesn’t have a budget, which is nearly nine months late. Earlier this month, Stein proposed a critical needs budget that includes increased pay for law enforcement, nurses, and behavioral health technicians. North Carolina ranks 49th in the country for starting salaries for state troopers and correctional officers, according to Stein.
“We know there’s more work to do to make this state safer,” Stein said. “We’re not a poor state, but we act like we are.”
