The Winthrop Public Health Department is ending another year of national recognition for its groundbreaking work with the town’s police to help residents with personal crises – at the same time it’s bracing for the possibility of a devastating cut in state funding.

The International Association of Police Chiefs, at its annual meeting last month, recognized the Winthrop Community and Law Enforcement Assisted Recovery program – also known as Winthrop CLEAR – as one of the best community policing programs in the world.

And earlier this year, the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative, or PAARI – a nationwide network of hundreds of police departments and treatment centers – presented Winthrop’s health and police departments with a leadership award for Winthrop CLEAR.

The Winthrop’s health department’s director, Meredith Hurley, also has been leading educational and research collaborations with Boston University, using the experiences of Winthrop CLEAR as a model for improving public health at the community level well beyond Winthrop’s borders.

Budget risk

While all that’s been taking place, Ms Hurley has been keeping a wary eye on her department’s future. Winthrop’s health department has a budget this year of about $1.1 million, and the overwhelming share of that depends on state funding.

And at this moment, that money looks to be at risk. Winthrop is among a shrinking number of communities in eastern Massachusetts with political leaders who see value in fighting the state housing law known as 3A despite state court rulings upholding its constitutionality. The repercussions of that position already have cost Winthrop a loss of eligibility for a growing array of state grants. They include at least $1.2 million in grants to help protect the town from rising sea levels, plus grant programs in areas that include tree planting, student safety, and disability access.

The Winthrop health department could be especially vulnerable. It works with an annual base budget from the town in the range of only about $200,000, then supplements that amount with far greater chunks of state funding that has amounted in recent years to another $1 million to $2 million.

Ms Hurley, director of the Winthrop health department since 2019, said she cannot yet predict how bad her department will be hit by the town’s refusal to implement the 3A zoning requirement – a position seemingly reinforced this month when voters decisively elected a slate of Town Council candidates committed to rejecting the 3A law.

But it’s possible, she said in an appearance this week on the WCAT program Winthrop and the World, that the Winthrop health department could lose two-thirds of its staff when the next state fiscal year arrives this coming summer.

State share

“It’s going to threaten it significantly,” Ms Hurley said of the likely effect on her department of the Town Council’s refusal to comply with the state’s 3A law. “We’re right now about 80 percent funded in grants, and about 65 percent of those are state grants,” she said.

The town health director said the effect could decimate Winthrop CLEAR, which the town created as a response to the opioid epidemic and grew it into a nationally recognized program.

The year’s honors for Winthrop CLEAR began at the PAARI conference in February in Florida, where Ms Hurley and Winthrop Police Lieutenant Sarko Gergerian represented the town among four municipalities nationwide as “Law Enforcement Champions in the Field of Deflection.” Then at the International Association of Chiefs of Police annual conference last month in Denver, Lieutenant Gergerian accepted on Winthrop CLEAR’s behalf the global organization’s top honor in the small-town category for its Leadership in Community Policing Award.

The CLEAR program has become a central part of how the Winthrop police and health departments operate, Ms Hurley said. The two agencies, along with Winthrop’s fire department, jointly share information on the people and situations they encounter, to help identify people either in crisis or showing signs that they could be headed in that direction. The reasons could be personal drug use, or other signs of financial or emotional deterioration, she said.

Efficiency marvel

Even the Fire Department’s role is important, Ms Hurley said. “They’re like the eyes and ears” for situations, such as excessive clutter in a home, that could be an early indicator that someone needs help with their daily functioning, she said.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police described that attention to detail in its honor of the Winthrop program. “Officers conduct empathetic outreach, gaining consent to share cases with public health partners, transforming 911 responses into long-term support,” the group said. “The program has helped thousands access recovery services, reduced arrests and crises, and reshaped police culture to prioritize compassion and trust.”

Ms Hurley said she also reached out to area universities for their expertise, and found Boston University to be a willing partner. At least four to six BU graduate students work each year with Winthrop CLEAR, benefiting both themselves and the town of Winthrop, Ms Hurley said. “Part of the curriculum of getting a public health degree is that you have to have a practicum experience,” which Winthrop CLEAR provides students, she said. BU also helps provide external assessments of Winthrop CLEAR, as part of the program’s continuous improvement, she said.

The international police chiefs association highlighted the cost-effectiveness of Winthrop’s effort. “With a $2 million health department budget and a 13-member team,” the group said in its citation, using 2024 budget figures, “Winthrop Police Department’s model is a beacon of innovation, proving that law enforcement can lead systemic change through empathy, collaboration, and community-centered care.”

But by the time the new state fiscal year begins next summer, the health department could lose the funding necessary to keep Winthrop CLEAR going, Ms Hurley said. “We could potentially lose six positions out of nine” in the town health department, if state aid to Winthrop remains blocked, she said.