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New Canaan Police Poised To Launch ‘Diversionary Program’ for Local Youths Found at Underage Drinking Parties

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Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said his department is “on the cusp” of launching its widely anticipated program that will see some young New Canaanites found with alcohol at underage drinking parties offered a chance to attend educational workshops with their parents in lieu of facing criminal infraction summonses. Several youth offenders already have been identified as prospective participants in a pilot launch of the “diversionary program,” the chief said. “They’ve been identified through previous incidents and now it’s just a matter of working with an addiction psychiatrist” to establish a curriculum for the program, Krolikowski told NewCanaanite.com. That curriculum will include information for both kids and parents about the ways that alcohol addiction can lead to abuse of narcotics such as cocaine and heroin, the chief has said. Both reducing youth access to substances in New Canaan, and the diversionary program specifically, rank among the NCPD’s goals for 2016, according to Krolikowski.

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Supportive of NCPD’s Proposed ‘Diversionary Program,’ Superintendent of Schools Eyes Ways To Integrate It at NCHS

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As a new initiative from New Canaan’s police chief takes shape—a program that would see young people caught drinking alcohol illegally diverted into an educational session rather than arrested—the superintendent of schools is exploring ways to integrate the program at NCHS. Asked for his thoughts on the proposed “diversionary program,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said it’s a “great idea to approach substance use and abuse by young people—by anyone—as an educational opportunity.”

“It is important that we do not just focus on punishment, that we focus on helping the people involved to learn from whatever mistakes they have made and support them so that they do not make the same mistakes in the future.”

The program itself would see police who break up underage drinking parties gather the names of kids otherwise charged with possession of alcohol by a minor or more serious offenses. Instead of receiving an infraction summons, those teens would be offered an opportunity to attend, together with their parents, two 2-hour sessions focused on drug and alcohol education. One way that Luizzi has considered integrating the program at New Canaan High School is through its Athletic Policies and Guidelines. Right now, students who break the law are subject to immediate suspensions from participation and other punitive measures.

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Underage Drinking Parties: Police Chief Proposes New Program That Offers Education in Lieu of Arrests

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To this point, officers arriving on the scene of an underage drinking party in New Canaan generally gather information about violations—someone is hosting the party and providing alcohol, or somebody is in possession of alcohol—and issue a few infraction summonses or make a few arrests. The balance of kids at the party who have been drinking will leave the scene with no accountability. Under a new initiative that New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski is designing—with support and feedback from the state’s attorney of the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District—those kids’ names are recorded for possible participation in a “diversionary program.”

“The next step is I am writing to the parents saying, ‘Your child was at this party consuming alcohol, we can charge him or her with X,Y or Z—which is a fine and license suspension and has potential consequences on your insurance—or you can attend this diversionary program,’ ” Krolikowski said Wednesday during the regular monthly meeting of the Police Commission, held at NCPD headquarters. To be taught by volunteering psychiatrists trained in addition, the program would be attended by parents and children, and run through two 2-hour sessions—likely on a Saturday, the chief said—with a focus on drug and alcohol education. Those in charge of the program would “explain the consequences of early abuse of alcohol and drugs, and what that can lead to,” Krolikowski said.