Join us on The Public Good! LEAD, Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, is a collaborative pre-arrest diversion program between Community and Law Enforcement that stops arrests for nonviolent offenses that occur due to poverty, substance abuse, and mental health. The hard fought campaign for LEAD in Buffalo included organizing community leaders and public officials, research action meetings, and thousands of letters and postcards to show evidence of the community’s buy in for this program.

In June, Mayor Brown announced that LEAD would finally be implemented, and, to celebrate, as well as to bring renewed awareness to what this program is and the power it holds to reform policing practices, Voice Buffalo organized a Town Hall held on Thursday, August 20th. Hear clips from the event on this week’s radio show which was a joint collaboration between PPG, WNY Peace Center, VOICE Buffalo, and Evergreen Health Services. Speakers included Keith Brown, Emma Fabian, Tanvier Peart, and Scott Johnson.