Mayor Brian Doliver and Norwich Police Chief Reuben Roach are part of a new task force seeking to address drug use around the City of Norwich. Above the mayor swears Roach in as police chief at a March council meeting. (Photo by Sarah Genter)

NORWICH – The City of Norwich is working to create a county-wide drug task force that will take proactive steps within the community while also aiding law enforcement in holding serious drug dealers and sex crime perpetrators more accountable.

The City of Norwich experienced six overdoses in about 12 hours between the evening of April 3 and and early morning of April 4, leaving two dead in Norwich and four at the hospital in critical condition.

Officials said without the emergency use of Narcan by responders, more would have died.

Norwich Mayor Brian Doliver recently made an announcement.

“To the citizens of Norwich: In the last few weeks we have been witnessing a number of tragic overdoses in our community.

“We are dealing with a public crisis.

“We are working with county, state and federal officials to bring the people responsible for this to justice.

“I will be meeting with all stakeholders and requesting the formation of a Drug Task Force to be implemented immediately.

“We have already increased police presence in key areas or 'hot spots' of trouble.

“We are now taking an inventory to be sure that all public safety personnel have the tools they need.

“I’m also looking to increase lighting in our downtown area and will be requesting from council a third detective that will be concentrating on our drug issue. Furthermore, I will continue to fight for more treatment and mental health facilities.

“We at the city are committed to seeing this through and making Norwich a place we can all be proud of."

The mayor also said officials were open to examining proactive ways to make the community safer.

He said the issue was larger than Norwich and he also supports a review of parts of New York State bail reform laws.

“The governor has been holding meetings for legislation as far as she's trying to make sure they do something to address bail reform. It'll help with things. Right now in bail reform there is a clause that basically says judges have to use the least restrictive thing to prosecute an individual, and they are trying to get that part thrown out,” said Doliver.

“We can't arrest our way out of this issue. That's really a big part of it. We as a country have focused and worked on the supply issue but there is a very serious demand issue. We need to take that demand issue off. We need to get people into treatment centers,”

Doliver said he did not support sites that permit open drug use, however. “I don't agree with that. I think we need to exhaust all options first. I think at this point we don't have enough treatment centers.”

He also said, “We are hoping to get some of the bigger drug dealers out there, but we don't know, we need more eyes on the issues. We need to find ways to get people off the streets and, as far as treatment centers, we need more of them.”

Norwich Police Chief Reuben Roach said, “The plan is to work closer with the sheriff's office and state police in hopes we can curtail the drug activity in and around Norwich. It will be multifaceted and multi-jurisdictional.”

Roach said the sheriff and state police were looking at the possibility of enabling the Norwich Police to be able to respond and follow up on local investigations from the city to any jurisdiction in the county.

“We will coordinate with them, through them and with each other on drug cases. Often times drug cases can be intricate and some drug dealers could be staying in the Town of Norwich and pushing product into the city or vice versa, just outside the city. And we will work as a team in law enforcement to make that stop,” he said.

He said there will likely be a group of officers assigned and dedicated to the task force's goals.

The mayor and police chief also urged the creation of a new police detective position.

Roach said the Norwich Police Department was responding to more sex crimes than it had in the past. Sex crime investigations are also complicated and sensitive, especially when they involve children, and take priority over non-violent drug investigations.

“Oftentimes, especially for the Norwich Police Department, we have two detectives and we will start working a narcotic case and we will be inundated with sex cases. In Norwich we have about 64 to 74 sex cases a year, so they are very time consuming and they have to be done correctly. And this diverts attention from the narcotics,” said Roach.

With another detective, police could designate two as specialists, one primarily for drugs and another for sex crimes. The third would be more of a general practitioner, and support the other two whenever needed.

The city is also looking at other ways to improve lighting and increase communication with neighbors and landlords, especially in places where police receive a lot of calls. The NFD has also suggested creating a centralized tip hotline or online resource for local residents to contact.

Doliver said, “We are already collaborating with certain landlords to walk through hallways and apartment complexes. We have already collaborated with the library director to go to the library a couple times a day. There is the Byrne Dairy, there is extra attention being put there. There are certain areas, we know there are some troubled spots.”

Doliver said the city was already in the process of looking at upgrading and increasing lighting downtown and now the process would become more of a priority.

He noted the recent improvement to the area around the car museum on Rexford Street, and suggested following a similar design along parts of Broad Street.

Police are still investigating the recent overdoses and no one has yet been arrested for dealing the deadly drugs.

On the evening of April 3, police were called to a residence on East Main Street and discovered two people who had overdosed, one of them dead.

Then at 4 a.m., on April 4, on Walnut Street, Norwich Police Officers were called to an apartment where four more individuals were located. One was deceased and three were in critical condition.

“We are in the process of reviewing all legal options in pursuing these dealers,” said Roach. “The community is upset. Even people who are a part of, or familiar with, the local drug world, are shocked,” he said.

Roach also said the state's bail reform had tied police hands in dealing with many issues. He said the reforms were probably a good idea, but parts were failures and were implemented without enough real-world consideration.

“I want the citizens of Norwich to know we are working hard to combat the local drug problem. I take it very seriously, and we will continue to do everything we can on our end to make arrests. We are going to try and get these drug houses shut down and we are working with the mayor to help them. We have to get creative. There are a lot of judicial issues we need to take into account,” he said.