NYPD To Refocus Efforts On Drug Dealers To Curb Heroin Crisis
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York City has seen a 22 percent jump in fatal overdoses so far in 2017. The NYPD is blaming that on fentanyl, a particularly potent synthetic drug.
"It's a crisis in the city that we've never seen before," Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said at a City Council meeting earlier this week.
To combat the crisis, the department is refocusing officers on finding the dealers.
"Each overdose will get the same focus we do on a homicide," Boyce said. "We'll have a crime scene or evidence collection come to the scene, gather evidence, take pictures, and start dealing with phone numbers and talking to people in the area. Canvases of that nature."
Carfentanil and fentanyl are driving forces in the most deadly drug epidemic the United States has ever seen. Because of their potency, it's not just addicts who are increasingly at risk — it's those tasked with saving lives and investigating the illegal trade. Police departments across the U.S. are arming officers with the opioid antidote Narcan.
As WCBS 880's Myles Miller reports, fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)