Community Policing, Heroin Overdose Outreach Key, Says Chief

In a wide-ranging interview with WBSM's Brian Thomas, New Bedford Police Chief Joseph Cordeiro touched on a lot of subjects that plague the police force, including panhandlers, shootings and drug overdoses.

Chief Cordeiro says the problem with the latter isn't with increased heroin use, but rather that the heroin is being mixed with Fentanyl, creating a more powerful and more addictive high. He said that intense high creates customer loyalty for the dealers and ensures repeated business. But it also increases the danger.

"Two specks of Fentanyl the size of salt grains is enough to kill you, and they're mixing this in with the heroin," Cordeiro said."And using laboratories that are not pristine standardized laboratories, like we have with our pharmaceuticals."

Cordeiro said that utilizing Narcan for someone overdosing is only one step of curing the addiction problem, and that prevention and keeping the next generation from "jumping into the pool of addiction" is the key.

Many continue to question why the department continues to spend taxpayer dollars administering Narcan to overdosing drug addicts. Cordeiro said that his department is bound to help whoever is in need, and that there can't be a selection process to determine who deserves help and who doesn't.

"We're not in a position to judge whose life is more valuable than another's," he said. "We're in the life-saving business, period."

Cordeiro admitted that the part of the process that needs more work is the follow-up care for the person overdosing, to keep them off the drugs and prevent them from overdosing again. He said part of being an effective police officer includes element of counseling as well.

The chief also pointed out that there is now a multidisciplinary opioid task force, comprised of some recovering addicts, medical doctors and a variety of others to come together and start to develop a model that can be put in place for dealing with the overdoses.

"That's what is even more important, the preventative piece," Cordeiro said. "We need to stop the next generation from jumping into this pool of addicition, because if they don't, our systems are being completely taxed right now."

He noted the price of Narcan has gone up, but that, "the one piece we can't put our finger on--the human suffering. The human suffering for the addict and the family that has to live through this process every day," he said.

With three different shootings happening in New Bedford's West End on Monday night, some are calling into question whether or not the crime numbers being reported in the city are really down, as city officials have touted. Cordeiro said where you live in the city affects your perception of crime levels.

"Perception is one's reality. If you live in a neighborhood where there were shots are fired, your perception is hey, crime isn't down,," he said. "But if you live in a neighborhood where you're not getting that, then you say, oh, crime is down. But it's your reality that's important, and that's important to us too."

Cordeiro said that he will have a new round of crime numbers to release next week, which he believes will continue the downward trend.

When Cordeiro accepted the chief's position last May, one of the policies he spoke strongly about was the idea of community policing. He said he wants to ensure his officers are interacting on a human level with the citizens of the city, but also taking care of problems immediately instead of allowing them to fester. He said that community policing is coming along, but it is still a work in progress.

"It's more than just developing relationships, which is very important," he said. "It's also identifying the problem, and how can we fix it?"