HILLSBORO, Ore. — Multnomah County announced Monday that it would delay the opening of its deflection center — a vital component in its plan to funnel people toward treatment when simple drug possession becomes criminal in Oregon once more on Sept. 1. In the meantime, the county will offer deflection "through mobile outreach."
But in neighboring Washington County, that's been the plan all along. Everything appears to be on track to launch as of the Sept. 1 deadline, in part because their plan differs from Multnomah County's in several important ways.
"So, maybe the starting point is that we've been meeting as a county since before the governor signed the new law, and I want to just emphasize that we've really leaned into this in a really significant way," Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton told KGW in a recent interview. "I can't tell you the number of hours — I've spent hundreds of hours on this because it's an important issue that we want to get right. It's also something brand new for Oregon."
"Deflection," as outlined under the new state law, is not synonymous with a diversion program. Regardless, Barton said that Washington County's program will sound familiar to people who have heard of diversion in the court system.
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"I think people are generally familiar with the diversion program, like drunk driving diversion; something where we try and take someone out of the normal process and divert them toward treatment instead, and we give them a reward, which is the case might be dismissed, or the charge might be decreased if they successfully complete that," Barton said. "Deflection is essentially the same idea, except it happens far earlier in the process — so, before the court process starts, maybe even before the police officer brings someone to jail out there on the street, the officer would present an opportunity for someone to divert or to deflect their case outside of the normal process."
The key distinction is that deflection programs give drug users a chance to stay out of the court system and get help. Barton said that Washington County is using an approach that has worked in other Oregon counties, along with techniques that have been effective within Washington County before.
"Drawing from things like specialty courts and treatment courts, or there's a program called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion that originated out of Seattle, and that Salem, Marion County has done successfully," Barton said. "So we've taken bits and pieces from other programs that we know are evidence-based and have a high likelihood of success, and we've put them all into our Washington County deflection program. And starting on September 1, that's when it will all begin."
Barton gave a walk-through of the program using a hypothetical situation: a Beaverton police officer spots someone using fentanyl outside the Beaverton Public Library — something Barton said is a "relatively common occurrence." If the officer develops probable cause that this person is using and holding fentanyl, that would fall under the new statutes for possession of a controlled substance.
The officer could then issue a misdemeanor criminal citation, which is the new baseline post-Measure 110. That would direct the person to show up in court to answer for the crime. But officers will also have the deflection option, which is county-specific.
In the Beaverton scenario, Barton said, the police officer could then call for someone known as a peer navigator or a peer support specialist, working for a community-based treatment organization like LifeWorks NW.
"Again, and that would be someone who has lived experience," Barton explained. "So they've been in that scenario, they know what it's like and they can come out to the scene and hopefully in the next, you know, 5-10, maybe 15 minutes, that person actually arrives where the officer is there with that person and the officer can do what we call a 'warm handoff.'
"He can say to that person, 'Look, you've been cited for this crime. But I want you to talk to Sally. Sally's been where you are. She can talk with you about some of your options, and we want to get you involved in treatment.' And Sally would then take it from there.
"And the goal is that Sally would convince this person, 'Hey, let's put you into this deflection program where if you successfully engage in treatment — and in Washington County, we require everyone to successfully and meaningfully engage in treatment — but if you do, you can avoid criminal charges. You can avoid the prospect of jail time or criminal record or things like that, and you can move forward with your life. And while we're at it, we can address any other issues you might be dealing with.'
"Maybe there's housing instability, food insecurity ... if we can connect them up to other social welfare, you know, things that might benefit them. But the goal is to leave them in a better position to meet people where they are but not leave them there and help move them forward."
The deflection program lasts 6 months, and Barton said that people can only choose this route once per year — additional infractions in a year will be handled through the court system.
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Washington County is not launching the system with any single drop-off center in place, but the county is working to build two different locations that will be available in the near future.
"There will be one central point, a hub, that we rely on, and it's called our Center for Addictions Triage and Treatment, or CATT for short," Barton said. "That idea was developed in 2019, before we had a fentanyl crisis and before ballot Measure 110 was even passed by the voters. And that has been in process, and we just had a groundbreaking for it actually a month or two ago. So the timing of it is within the next year, we hope, that new building in that new center will be ready to go.
"And it will be a 24/7 sobering and treatment center that will provide all sorts of resources for people that are involved in deflection. On day one of our deflection program — that building is not ready yet ... but there will be a center and that will be a huge focus for us to center our resources around people and give them a place to go."