This section of the toolkit was developed using information gathered through interviews and focus groups with public safety stakeholders, who represent law enforcement, including local police and the sheriff’s department.
Below you will find the promising overdose response strategies identified by public safety stakeholders in Detroit. Each promising strategy is numbered, along with stakeholder identified barriers to accomplishing the proposed strategy and how the System for Opioid Overdose Surveillance (SOS) may assist stakeholders’ ability to accomplish each promising strategy.
Promising Strategy 1: Strategic Patrol
Public safety stakeholders highlight the importance of being able to strategically patrol in high overdose incidence locations. They note that providing additional units to a high overdose area would have the potential to prevent others from using or overdosing. Given limitations to the number of available officers, optimizing where they focus efforts is critical.
“If it’s a general area where it happens a lot… that would be somewhere that we could send more units to patrol and… those people who may just sit on the side of the road do that, they may not do that if they see a police car come by and maybe not stop on the side to take their drugs at that time or something like that.”
Public Safety Stakeholder
Barriers to Strategic Patrol
Overburdened staff is one of the primary barriers to increasing strategic patrol in specific areas with high incidence of suspected overdoses. When asked about potential challenges with implementing responses, our stakeholder reported, “Well, as far as our department is concerned cuz we’re kinda busy, so we may not able…sometimes we may not be able to just concentrate on that specifically.” This demonstrates how law enforcement is not always able to designate time to patrol specific areas impacted by the opioid epidemic.
Near Real-Time Data Impact
Even if the human capacity is not available to strategically patrol in areas of high opioid overdose incidence, the near real-time opioid overdose reports can be used to prioritize the need for enhanced opioid overdose response and prevention efforts. Data shown in the reports and on the interactive dashboard, when shared with county and/or city officials, can demonstrate the need for increased resources within the police department. Additionally, the near real-time opioid overdose reports can help guide the allocation of the resources that are readily available.
Promising Strategy 2: Increasing Trust within the Community
Public safety stakeholders emphasize continued need for education on substance use disorder, the opioid epidemic, and understanding the demographics of people that use opioids in order to build trust with the community. One potential aspect of educational trainings could include additional information to officers on the science of addiction and options for offering help as opposed to punishment for someone that uses opioids. Part of this gap in education revolves around who may be using opioids within the community. Public safety officials sometimes have one image of an opioid user in mind, while, in reality, individuals across all demographic groups experience opioid overdoses.
Educating law enforcement on demographic characteristics of those that overdose would give them a greater understanding of the individuals impacted in their community.
“If we can have some folks that can kinda give us a better why and who these folks are, then I think you know, in terms of our involvement with these people we come into touch with every single day, it would be a lot easier for us to kind of refer them [to help].”
Public Safety Stakeholder
Barriers to Increasing Community Trust
Mistrust of law enforcement by the public and community organizations is a common barrier public safety stakeholders face. In the event of an overdose or when dealing with any matter related to substances and substance use, individuals and organizations are often reluctant to involve public safety out of fear of arrest or other punitive consequences. As one public safety stakeholder notes, “…Once we kinda come in contact with those folks…they’ve got 2 options; they’re going to jail, they’re going to the hospital, whichever one’s gonna get them out of our hair the quickest. Part of that is because our lack of education, right? We really don’t understand maybe the difference between criminal behavior and the addiction piece of it or the dependency piece of it.” While there are existing legislation efforts such as the Good Samaritan law, which aims to help with this barrier, public safety officials have acknowledged the need to breakdown this barrier at the local level.
Near Real-Time Data Impact
Near real-time demographic data such as age, sex, and race from the SOS reports can provide foundational knowledge about who is overdosing on opioids, informing insight into existing efforts and interventions that police can use as a resource. Efforts around the community such as being involved in the Enhancing Opioid Overdose Response Strategies stakeholder group gives law enforcement the opportunity to communicate with community-based organizations, learn about the efforts of these organizations, and share useful data.
Promising Strategy 3: Public Safety Announcements
A public safety stakeholder discusses how dissemination of public safety announcements to other community stakeholders related to opioid overdoses would increase awareness of the opioid epidemic and enhance other organizations’ efforts to address it within their specific neighborhood. Public safety stakeholders emphasize this point by discussing their collaborations with their other crime intelligence and narcotics units, neighborhood police officers, and first responders to better respond to overdoses in their community. They also note the importance of engaging community organizations to increase efforts at the neighborhood level.
In addition to community groups that individual precincts work with, public safety also works with youth-specific programs such as the Detroit Police Athletic League, or Detroit PAL.13
Through this program, in partnership with volunteers and the Detroit Police Department, children and teens can participate in year-round athletic, academic, and leadership development programs.
The Detroit Police Department’s partnership with this program helps increase community engagement and relations, and allows them to deliver preventative PSAs to the youth surrounding public health and safety issues within the community.
Stakeholders note that it’s important to educate and increase awareness of drug use among youth, and how they could incorporate overdose PSAs into their program’s educational components. One stakeholder explains that, “You know, if we can get the kids to get it in their mind frame that hey, you know, don’t do drugs, of course, that would help. That would probably help bring down some of the numbers, just the awareness of it.” This quote shows the potential for public safety to become more involved in the prevention realm of the opioid epidemic.
“We have like, the Boys and Girls Clubs, our community groups. You know, each precinct has their own community group and we share that information with them, and they take that back to their respective neighborhoods and….when they have their neighborhood meetings, they’ll pass out that information as well.”
Public Safety Stakeholder
Barriers to Public Safety Announcements
Like many stakeholders, limited time and resources are constant barriers in enhancing law enforcement agencies’ opioid overdose response efforts. Public safety stakeholders note the tension in addressing competing priorities within the department, and their limited human and financial resources prevent them from implementing or enhancing overdose response strategies.
Near Real-Time Data Impact
The availability of the near-real time opioid overdose reports is useful in highlighting demographics that are most heavily impacted by opioid overdose within the community. The format and dissemination method of the reports makes it easy for law enforcement to share them amongst other law enforcement divisions and community stakeholders, providing information to inform PSA’s and other educational messages.
Lastly, the overdose reports provide public safety stakeholders with foundational knowledge on the opioid epidemic within their respective communities. With the proper synthesis of information, this knowledge can be incorporated and shared within educational programs for youth.