Nassau and Suffolk counties joined forces last week to further combat heroin overdoses on Long Island, as data indicates the problem isn’t slowing.
At a Feb. 19 event, the counties’ executives and police commissioners officially created the Long Island Heroin Task Force, a joint unit tasked with investigating drug overdoses and “slow(ing) the flow of narcotics into our neighborhoods,” Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano said in a statement.
“The dealers who flood our communities with heroin don’t care about county lines, or any lines for that matter,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in the statement. “That is why this historic partnership is critical to fight these criminal operations which cross jurisdictions.”
The force of four detectives, a supervisor and an intel analyst will operate in Nassau County Police Department space at an undisclosed location, the statement said.
Nassau police made 709 heroin arrests in 2015, up from 539 in 2014, according to police statistics. Opiate-related arrests rose to 417 in 2015 from 369 in 2014.
The rise was less sharp in Suffolk County — police made 1,898 heroin arrests in 2015, up from 1,889 in 2014, the statement said.
Nassau County saw a record 58 fatal heroin overdoses in 2015, according to data from the county medical examiner’s office. Suffolk saw 103 fatal overdoses last year, down from 109 in 2014.
The statement said Nassau police gave 416 doses last year of Narcan, an opioid overdose antidote that can be administered through an injection or a nasal spray.
Suffolk police administered Narcan 543 times in 2015, with an additional 223 doses administered across the county.
As part of an effort to prevent overdose deaths, Nassau’s department of human services has held sponsored Narcan administration training seminars to show residents how to treat someone having an overdose.
More than 6,000 residents have received the training under the Mangano administration, the statement said.
“At the same time, we also know that law enforcement is just one part of the equation to tackle a public health crisis that is tearing apart communities one family at a time,” Bellone said in the statement. “That is why we must continue to invest in public outreach, treatment programs, as well as drugs like Narcan which can save lives and Vivitrol, which can help stem addiction.”
The islandwide task force will join two others in Nassau County dedicated to tackling heroin abuse and drug crimes.
The Nassau County Heroin Prevention Task Force, founded in 2011 and co-led under Mangano and District Attorney Madeline Singas, is a coalition of community groups and government agencies working to prevent heroin abuse and drug crime through education, legislation and law enforcement.
The Nassau County police department also created its own task force in September, moving eight detectives into its narcotics unit in an effort to more aggressively target dealers.
Nassau police will continue to actively participate with the Heroin Prevention Task Force, county spokeswoman Katie Grilli-Robles said in an email.
“This is all part of the county’s comprehensive strategy of enforcement, education, awareness and treatment,” she said.
