Please go to the Portland Press Herald to read the full editorial.

The Scarborough Police Department can’t fill a leadership role better suited to the state.

~~Excerpt

It was one of the rare good news stories of the opiate overdose crisis: Members of one police department decided to do something to stop the spread of what looked to be more of a sickness than a crime.

Scarborough cops offered addicts a deal. If you want to get clean, come into the station and we won’t arrest you. Instead, the local PD would do what it could to find you a bed in a residential treatment program.

The initiative is called “Operation Hope.” Now, though, hope is about all that the backers of the program have.

It missed out on a federal grant and is having trouble finding free treatment beds where they can place people. A small amount of state money helps, but it will not keep the program running indefinitely.