A progressive public defender who was on the outs with Seattle’s law enforcement and the district attorney over her advocacy for police reform isn’t normally the type of person conservatives would select as a partner. In fact, she was called “the devil” in a 2007 police union newsletter.
Add to the mix $2.8 million in funding from George Soros and the Ford Foundation for a public safety program while crime surged, and you have the makings of deep division between the Right and the Left.
But that’s not what happened.
Lisa Daugaard, co-executive director of Seattle’s Public Defender Association, helped create a way to get the homeless, mentally ill, and drug-addicted members of society into counseling and away from committing petty crimes that could grow into something much more serious.
This is actually a form of community policing, something the Right broadly supports but has found whittled away over the years due to budget cuts. The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, or LEAD, started in 2011 and has grown nationwide to 75 jurisdictions.
“Police and prosecutors were opposed to me and my colleagues. But it turns out they needed me, and I needed them,” Daugaard said. “We have found to all of our surprises that we were exceptionally good allies to accomplish the changes that needed to be made. No one could do it by themselves.”
Lisa Daugaard.jpgAlthough the program is embraced in liberal strongholds such as San Francisco, Detroit, Baltimore, and New Orleans, it also operates in conservative Washington County, Maryland; San Juan, New Mexico; Waynesville, North Carolina, and numerous other cities.
Soros’s Open Society Foundation, Ford, and the more conservative Arnold Foundation provided the seed money. Now, it operates on grants and a $12 million yearly budget from the city and county.
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It works like this: Officers who encounter low-level offenders determine whether they would benefit from some type of intervention that could include housing.
Any criminal evidence is booked, and a report is taken before a LEAD official is called to work with the individual.
People who agree to enter the program will be assigned a case manager who coordinates with police to alleviate jail bookings. Participants must not return to the arrest location for 24 hours. This opens the door for treatment that could last months or years, with police getting involved if there is another offense. The program is not an immunity from future arrests.
Police and prosecutors have agreed on a list of crimes eligible for the program and meet regularly with caseworkers and counselors to discuss the progress of individuals.
Daugaard says program participants are not the people involved in smash-and-grab robberies, arson, or any of the mayhem that has befallen Seattle. A 2021 crime report showed violence at a 14-year high.
“Public disorder is very serious in Seattle,” she admitted. “It’s bad and needs to be improved. There is an epidemic of property crime, shoplifting, people grabbing stuff and selling it for income. There is no question we have the perfect storm.”
She criticized the progressive prosecutors in Seattle for having “a long list of things they are not doing” to solve the crime problem. LEAD stepped in to fill in the gaps, notably by prioritizing mental illness treatment that was defunded in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan. The burden was placed on the states, which largely did not appropriate enough funding to deal with the problem. This led to homelessness and increased crime.
LEAD has a caseload of about 1,000 and a success rate of 58% (no re-offenses). The most shining example is a former heroin dealer and addict who resolved pending criminal cases, got sober, and now works as a counselor with LEAD.
Los Angeles County LEAD program.pngLos Angeles County, which has a smaller LEAD program with one designated sheriff’s deputy, has a similar praise report.
Deputy Eugene Gaines found a former firefighter living in a car who was homeless and addicted to drugs. He had a rap sheet that included grand theft auto and drug possession.
“I would go by his car where he was staying and leave an egg McMuffin on the windshield,” Gaines said. “He was not interested in the program.”
Eventually, Gaines won him over, and the man agreed to housing and counseling. He is now working on his master’s degree and also wants to be a counselor.
LA Sheriff Alex Villanueva, a Democrat who has publicly battled city and county politicians for what he says is a soft-on-crime “woke” agenda, says diversion programs like LEAD “are all about public safety, not left or right.”
“When you defund law enforcement, you defund our community policing issue,” he said. “Lower staffing prohibits our engagement with the community to reach out and do these wonderful things. You can’t fight crime without crime fighters.”
In Orange County, which for decades has been one of the nation’s leading conservative strongholds, District Attorney Todd Spitzer does not have LEAD but instead created a similar program that is funded in three cities.
Todd Spitzer with flag.jpg
It’s called Focused Intervention Route to Services and Treatment, or FIRST, and includes petty theft, public intoxication, and drug crimes.
“The key to any prefiling [criminal case] diversion program is to ensure you pick the correct low level offenders who are committed to their sobriety or mental illness issues,” Spitzer said. “The government and the DA have to be committed to addressing this or they will fail. At the same time, you have to hold custody time over the [offender’s] head to incentivize them to stay in the program.”
It’s likely Seattle’s LEAD cases include more severe crimes than other jurisdictions because the mental health problem is more prevalent. Any crime involving victims includes a discussion with prosecutors if they disagree. Almost everyone LEAD accepts has endured serious trauma, and 90% are homeless.
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“It’s really Lord of the Flies and law of the jungle,” Daugaard said. “LEAD becomes a forum for these sectors that never understood each other. We can be on the same side and have the same objective.”
