The City of Batavia Fire Department is the first fire department in NYS to partner with PARRI(Police Assisted Addiction & Recovery Initiative), locally referred to as the Public Safety Assisted Addition & Recovery Initiative, and is only one of few fire departments across the country to get involved.
Currently, PAARI, a national network of 600 police departments in 34 states, locally including the City of Batavia Police Department, The Leroy Police Department and the Genesee County Sheriff’s Department, supporting non-arrest or early diversion program models that reach people before they enter the criminal justice system.
In 2015, the Gloucester Police Department in Massachusetts launched a program called the Angel Program, that created a stigma free entry point to treatment and categorized addiction as a disease and not a crime. PAARI was founded as a non-profit along side that program to help law enforcement agencies create a non-arrest program to prevent and reduce overdose deaths and expand access to treatment and recovery.
The new location at the City of Batavia Fire Department was made possible through support from the Greater Rochester Health Foundation.
