The days when getting arrested for drunken driving or public intoxication in Lincoln or Lancaster County landed you in a locked cell with tile floors, a stainless steel toilet and a mattress until you sobered up appear to be over.
For the past month, people have been taken to a clean, open space with cushioned chairs, a few beds, showers and televisions — and almost no locked rooms.
Assistant Police Chief Ryan Dale told the Lancaster County Board last week that’s a good thing, even though two years ago law enforcement officers worried about leaving intoxicated people in an unlocked space.
“Based on our observations this really is the best solution we’ve ever had,†he said.
Once known as detox, or “civil protective custody,†the place for people who are intoxicated on drugs or alcohol but who don’t need to be in jail is now called LinkPointe.
People are also reading…
LinkPointe is housed in a newly renovated space at 635 J St. that used to be a police garage, and is run by CenterPointe, a nonprofit that specializes in mental health and substance use treatment.
Opening of the doors of the new space was the result of a long process that began two years earlier, when The Bridge ended a 40-year contract with the city and county.
While a nursing shortage ultimately led to the end of the contract with the city and county, the situation highlighted the challenges of providing such services — and that the nonprofit leaders did not believe locking people up in cells was following best practices for dealing with that population.
Once the contract was up, city and county officials opted first for a temporary spot: a portable classroom. They hired Centerpointe to run it and decided not to lock the doors. They arranged for Cedars to take anyone under 19 and the People’s City Mission to take people who were homeless.
And Lancaster County earmarked its federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars for a $1.79 million renovation of the old police garage at 635 J St.
They made other changes: Police began looking for a responsible person to take people home when they stopped them, rather than taking them to what is now LinkPointe to wait for someone, reducing the number of people that ended up there.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln police also have a space to take intoxicated people during home Husker games so not many gameday fans end up at LinkPointe.
The changes have made a huge difference in the number of people police bring to the facility — a 78% reduction compared to the last two years The Bridge contracted with the city and county, even though a year ago LinkPointe again began taking people identified as being homeless.Â
In the two years it's been operating, 971 people have come to LinkPointe in the portable and the new space, compared with 4,509 people brought to The Bridge in the final two years of its contract.
Centerpointe takes what Amber Dirks, senior director of community response, calls a “harm reduction†approach where staff focuses on connecting with people, allowing them some choice, not judgment, and offering support.
Not using locked cells has made a huge difference, Dale said.
“What we found is not just putting someone on a mattress in a cell, but having a more welcoming environment ... makes a huge difference in peoples' demeanor and de-escalation,†he said.
Over the past two years, just 14 people have been taken to jail because of violent behavior, he said. Another 20 left against staff recommendations, Dale said.
"The low number of people who've walked away illustrates how the staff is treating them," he said.
They recently added two locked cell-like rooms, at the police department’s request, but Dale said he doesn’t anticipate having to use them much, and if they do, as soon as the person calms down, they will let them into the common area.
More than 60% of the people brought to LinkPointe were discharged to a responsible party, typically 2-4 hours after they arrived. Ninety-one people were not accepted, the two most common reasons being that their blood-alcohol level was so high they had to be hospitalized and because they were noncompliant.
Standing ovation
A crowded ballroom at the Cornhusker Hotel took a moment Tuesday to give retiring Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department Director Pat Lopez a standing ovation.
Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird — the pandemic that defined much of her first term now largely in the rearview mirror — focused this year’s State of the City address mostly on the more typical work of her city administration. But she looked back briefly, to thank one of the most prominent figures of 2020.
“Her service saved lives during one of our city’s most challenging periods,†she said. “Thank you for the truly inspiring example you set, a kind, fearless and strong leader, and thank you for the decades you have spent dedicated to protecting the health and safety of our community.â€
Lopez came out of retirement to be interim director just 10 months before COVID-19 began shutting down life as Nebraska knew it.
She was instrumental in the mask mandates and other health directives that would generate controversy that led to an (unsuccessful) attempt to recall the mayor and four City Council members over her appointment as permanent director, and lawsuits over the health directives by at least two bars.
Those who opposed the mask mandate were probably not in this crowd, but the applause came after highlighting some pretty compelling statistics: Had Lancaster County’s death rate been the same as the state's, an additional 230 people would have died.
After the swan song
What’s old is new again.
A $2.1 million restoration project of the pond that has graced the Wyuka Cemetery grounds for more than a century is finished.
The project, paid for with federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars authorized by the Legislature, includes new sidewalks, landscaping and a new “swan house†in the middle (the swans will be brought back later).
Wyuka, which encompasses about 100 acres between O and Vine streets and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was established by the state as a public charitable organization in 1869.
The Pershing mural will be reinstalled just to the north of the pond and bridge, and the Wyuka trustees are planning to add a playground and picnic tables to the park area as well.
Mike McCullough, a contractor who worked on the pond restoration and removing the mural from the facade of Pershing, said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony that a century ago the pond was a gathering place, a tranquil retreat for families.
This project, he said, breathes new life into the pond, creating a place, once again, “to connect, reflect and enjoy.â€