EVANSTON, Ill. –- A new program at the Evanston Police Department is helping to give people a second chance, and how it all started, stemmed from a chance encounter.
The conversation about a Narcan program began several years back when a police chaplain advocated for equipping Evanston police officers and staff with the medicine, also known as Naloxone, used to rapidly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
“It took quite some time to get that program off the ground and it was a rather unconventional way in which that program started,” Commander Scott Sophier said.
Sophier, who works in Evanston police’s Community Relations Unit, said the police chaplain who helped spearhead the idea for a program donated the first doses of Narcan, and it eventually came to fruition following a traffic stop.
“About a year and a half ago, I conducted a traffic stop while working in my role with the traffic unit,” Sophier said. “About a week and a half later, I received a card in the mail, which had never happened, from the citizen who advised me that she worked for a local not-for-profit in the addiction space and was hoping that the police department and her organization could partner together for a program.”
That woman was Luana Lienhart, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), who was running late for work.
“I was completely at fault; he wasn’t wrong to pull me over. I was not in a good headspace to be a nice, normal, person. I was genuinely quite rude,” Lienhart said. “As soon as he left, I looked at the rosary that hangs from my rearview mirror, and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s not who I really am.”
Lienhart said, despite her demeanor toward Sophier, he was nothing but graceful, kind, and professional during their encounter. She sent a card, a handwritten note, and a gift card, which Sophier said he could not accept, to apologize and share her idea for a new partnership.
“I paid the ticket before I sent the card because I didn’t want there to be any confusion as to what the motivation was,” Lienhart said.
The pair said they met to talk about the idea, eventually forming a friendship, a plan, and a curriculum for training EPD officers and staff. Lienhart conducted eight training sessions for all sworn and non-sworn members of the department, something Sophier said is important because you never know where an overdose could occur.
“You could have someone come to our lobby; you could have someone held in custody that’s suffering the effects of an overdose,” Sophier said.
The Narcan program officially launched just about six months ago, and to date, Sophier said five people have been revived using the medicine.
“Actually once, it was 10 days after the implementation of the program, which is just unbelievable, to know in that short amount of time we were able to step in and help,” Sophier said.
Sophier said officers have two doses of Narcan on their vests because it is never guaranteed they will have time to run back to their vehicles in the event someone suffers a medical emergency. He said there are also many times a call may come in as a non-medical call, where officers need to be prepared to jump into action.
“We have a top-rate fire department here. Evanston Fire Department is one of the best fire departments in the country, but there are going to be times by way of proximity or by someone flagging down a police officer, that officers are going to be there first with a person that is unconscious, a person that is not breathing,” Sophier said.
Lienhart said she was working with the organization Peer Services, an organization that provides community-based substance use prevention and service treatment to residents in a handful of communities, including Evanston.
“Most people want to do the right thing, they just need the tools and the know-how, they just need to be empowered to do that,” Lienhart said.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, opioid-involved deaths rose from 2010 to 2017 and remained steady through 2019. It was in 2020 and 2021, where there was reportedly a significant increase in overdose deaths.
“They’re putting literally god knows what into these drugs,” Lienhart said.
She said she got into social work to help serve her community but finds fulfillment in knowing she has had the opportunity to now serve those who serve their community. She said she understands the importance of wraparound services provided to those who want it, even after a person is revived using Narcan.
“It’s really hard to quantify whose life was truly saved and whose was not, but we know we’re having an impact, and we know that impact goes beyond the individual,” Sophier said. “We have a community caretaking function and the ability to help those who reside in and visit the community of Evanston to take care of them and help them however need be.”
Andrew Dehaan, a substance use specialist, said he knows programs like this are making a difference.
“It’s awesome that these organizations and police departments are getting involved,” Dehaan said. “It’s a step in the right direction. You have to take these baby steps to get to that final resolve. Some people might think, oh that’s common sense, you’d think that might carry it, right, but it’s not.”
Dehaan works in the outreach sector with the Night Ministry, an organization like those Evanston police partner with to help give people additional resources. He also understands all of this from a firsthand perspective.
“Narcan saved my life. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Narcan. I even have the chemical element tattooed on me,” Dehaan said. “My life was saved when I overdosed at a gas station. I don’t even know who the guy was. All’s I know is the guy drove a truck. Next thing I know, I woke up in the hospital. The was the last time I used and that was four years ago.”
Dehaan helps meet people where they’re at, both figuratively and literally, including some people on the very streets he once called home.
“We’re basically South Side, North Side, West Side, anywhere in Chicago. People can call us, especially with harm reduction, I always believe that people, no matter what their situation; whether they’re housed or unhoused, have the right to harm reduction,” Dehaan said.
Dehaan said in the past calendar year, the Night Ministry has given away 5,000 Narcan doses. He also works with hospitals in the area to discuss harm reduction with medical students and staff, in hopes of breaking stigmas in the medical field.
“It’s definitely fiction when people believe that these people are giving up on themselves, that’s not true at all,” Dehaan added. “It feels good to give back and to stand on this other side. Everyone always asks how I did it. Everybody has their own journey; it’s not going to be the same for everybody.”
Dehaan said it took him 20 years to get to where he is now, four years sober, and he admits the road wasn’t easy. He credits a bystander – a stranger – with being the reason he was given a second chance to turn his pain into purpose.
“I was out at a gas station in Elmwood. If I ever saw that guy again, man, I’d give him a hug,” Dehaan said. “I owe him everything. He didn’t know me. He didn’t know who I was. He just knew somebody needed help and if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here; I wouldn’t be affecting all these lives, and you see it branch off.”
He said he’s hopeful programs like the one through Evanston police will continue to give others a second chance like the man at a gas station did for him.
“This was just so wonderful and so unexpected and just a testimony to good things can come out of bad things if we extend each other a little grace,” Lienhart said.
Evanston police said there are also two branches of the Evanston Public Library that are now official Narcan dispensing locations where people can get free doses with no questions asked.