Homeless Man Wants To Go to Jail – Officer Has a Better Idea
Portsmouth Police Officers don’t spend all of their time chasing bad guys. Increasingly, caring officers find themselves working as advocates for mentally ill, homeless, and addicted individuals.
Just after 1 am, the BP on Gallia reported a man who refused to leave the premises.
When officers arrived on the scene, they discovered a troubled man with a long history of arrests. He’s been arrested 20 times – 12 times in the past year. In fact, last month he managed to get arrested three times in one week for refusing to leave the Taco Bell on Gallia. However, each time he was immediately released per the court, despite the fact he made suicidal statements.
This time, the homeless man asked officers to take him to jail so he’d have a place to stay. The officer had a talk with him and convinced him that he should consider going to drug rehab in order to turn his life around and become a productive member of society. The man agreed and was transported to a local rehab facility.
Unfortunately, just five hours later, officers responded to Coffee at the Lofts for a report of a man refusing to leave the premises. It was the same man, and he was again making suicidal statements. An ambulance transported him to SOMC for treatment.
However, by Sunday evening, he was back on the streets again. Just after 10 pm, he showed up at Speedway and refused to leave, insisting he wanted to wait for the police. He then left, but officers caught up with him at Big Lots. Officers took information for a criminal trespass report.
It was not specified why the Rehab did not keep him or why SOMC did not impose a 72-hour hold on him.