Police officers often encounter people with substance use disorders and in need of treatment. Police pre-arrest diversion or “deflection” programs allow police departments to refer individuals to treatment, steering them away from traditional criminal justice system processing. This preliminary outcome evaluation examined A Way Out (AWO), a program in Lake County, Illinois, in which contact with police is initiated by individuals in the community who seek substance use disorder treatment. We examined groups of individuals referred to one residential treatment provider through AWO and through other means (criminal justice system, self, family, or healthcare/community providers). We examined group differences and compared the short-term (minimum of six months) post-treatment arrest outcomes of those groups. We found AWO participants were predominately White, male, aged in their late 20s to early 30s, and diagnosed with an opioid use disorder, which was similar to those referred to treatment in other ways. The groups showed no statistically significant differences in numbers of post-treatment misdemeanor, felony, or total arrests. Therefore, we found AWO is on par with other referral methods to treatment and can effectively direct community members to substance use disorder treatment and aid in their recovery.