Feature: Seattle's LEAD Program
It's a Thursday night in downtown Seattle. Reflected in the rain-slicked streets are the red and blue lights of a police cruiser.
Inside, an officer is running a records check on an individual carrying a few grams of drugs. The records come back clean: no convictions for violent offenses. The cop gets out of the car and offers the individual two options. One is King County jail. The other is referral to a case manager with LEAD, a pre-arrest program developed with nonprofits, the criminal justice system, the Seattle community and the mayor's office. LEAD enables police officers in downtown Seattle and adjacent neighborhoods to redirect low-level drug crime or street prostitution offenders without prior violent convictions into community-based programs.
Photo: Matt Z. Banderas
