Last year, David Lee was living on Atlanta’s streets, sleeping on a cardboard box and begging for change outside of a QuikTrip. That was until one day when a police officer approached him as Lee laid on the ground in the rain.
The officer asked what he was doing to which the Atlantan — who was struggling with substance abuse issues — responded: “I’m trying to get clean.”
Instead of taking Lee to jail, the officer called the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative, also known as PAD, Atlanta’s original pre-arrest diversion program that helps vulnerable residents get back on their feet…