Tempe Opioid Recovery Project

A police-social service-researcher collaboration studying how law enforcement responds to opioid overdoses.

Location: Tempe, Arizona

Police are often the first on scene at opioid overdoses, but “arrest or leave” isn’t much of a strategy. The Tempe Opioid Recovery Project (ORP) was built around a different idea: what if police, social services, and researchers actually worked together?

Partnering with the Tempe Police Department, we’ve studied overdose response from multiple angles — officer attitudes toward people who use drugs, what body-worn camera footage tells us about what actually happens at overdose scenes, whether Narcan-trained officers are using it, and how proximity to services shapes outcomes for people experiencing homelessness. The through-line is figuring out what a more effective, humane police response to the opioid crisis looks like in practice.

Team

  • Michael D. White · Arizona State University
  • Dina Perrone · California State University, Long Beach
  • Seth Watts · Texas State University
  • Aili Malm · California State University, Long Beach

Publications