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Monday night for the second time in a week, Salt Lake City police officers descended on the Rio Grande neighborhood downtown and arrested dozens in "Operation Diversion" that seeks to get addicts into treatment and drug dealers in jail.

Forty three people were arrested and evaluated for mental health, drug treatment or incarceration. This was in addition to the 49 arrested last week in the initial targeted raid on people congregating and camping between 200 South and 400 South on 500 West.

The atmosphere surrounding hundreds of homeless campers, drug dealers and others congregating west of the Rio Grande Depot had reached a crisis, according to civic and business leaders. Lawlessness and violence has become commonplace in the area around The Road Home Shelter at 210 S. Rio Grande Street, according to law-enforcement officials.

Only individuals with outstanding warrants were arrested, along with those who were seen committing crimes during the operation, police said.

The cooperative initiative brought together Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, District Attorney Sim Gill and a host of mental health and addiction-treatment organizations.

"Our goal is to keep treatment beds full," said Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski. "And for us to pick up criminals preying on the homeless, and there will be a bed for them in jail."

The mayor said she had received calls and emails from residents thanking her for saving addicted family members.

"For the first time we have real hope," Biskupski said of one mother's call.

Operation Diversion provides an opportunity to get eligible people into treatment without entering the criminal-justice system. The unique program evaluates individuals within hours of their arrest and gets them public defenders and counselors and into treatment programs, said Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder.

"The complexity of this operation is very real," he said. "I have not seen anything like this in my 30 years."

An emphasis is put on empathy with the people who were taken into custody and evaluated next to Salt Lake City police headquarters at an empty bank building. The two-hour process normally would take months in the traditional track of the criminal-justice system, Winder said.

They are given a choice, he said, "Do you really want to make a change in your life... Are you willing to take the difficult road to recovery?"

Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown said it's been demonstrated over and over again that arresting addicts cannot solve the crisis.

"There has to be a better way forward," he said. "Through our efforts, we are going to change lives and we are going to save money."

Officials Tuesday morning did not have a clear number of those who went to treatment versus those incarcerated.

Winder said it is something like 50-50 for the 92 arrested during both operations. He noted, however, that two individuals arrested Thursday were arrested again Monday, after fleeing treatment.

Authorities and in-take workers sought to divide the arrestees into three categories: addicts and mental-health sufferers; people selling drugs to feed their own habit; and drug dealers seeking money.

The first two categories were given the option of treatment.

Those who go to jail also have options, the district attorney said. They can receive diversion to treatment before charges are filed without a guilty plea; they can make a guilty plea in abeyance and go into treatment that could clear that record; or they could get treatment after adjudication.

Gill said it was a public-health crisis model that seeks treatment rather than incarceration. He called it "systemic reform" that better uses resources, rather then funneling everyone through the criminal-justice system.

"It's a better return on our dollars."

Operation Diversion is funded by $150,000 from the city and $1.2 million from the county. The money will pay for six months of intensive drug treatment for some 150 people and at least 18 months of criminal prosecutions led by the Salt Lake County district attorney's office.

Individuals will be tracked through the program. If deemed a success, local leaders will seek funding from the Legislature, including a portion of a modest expansion of Medicaid that is still being vetted by the federal government, said Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams. The Medicaid funding is equivalent to $70 million — the state would provide $30 million in matching money.

However, the federal money is not certain, McAdams said. In the meantime, local leaders will ask the Legislature to use the $30 million it set aside to sustain the program.