Council heard a first reading of the $15,000 request to cover the purchase of the dog, equipment and outfitting another cruiser for the canine officer.
Council is expected to take action at its Sept. 6 meeting.
RELATED: Drug overdose deaths skyrocket in Ohio
Adkins told council that the city is attacking the heroin epidemic on multiple fronts such as the heroin response unit, chronic nuisance ordinance enforcement where drug activity is taking place, and the various heroin summit meetings.
“We feel like we’re making some progress in a number of different areas,” he said.
The police department is using community oriented policing in “hot spots,” Adkins said, as well as working to intercept drugs as they enter the city.
“ One of the most valuable tools we have in this are using canines when we stop suspicious vehicles,” he said. “It gives us a chance to walk around a vehicle with a canine and looking for drug activity coming into the city and going out of the city.”
The city currently has four police canines.
An additional canine would provide more day-to-day enforcement than special patrols assigned three to four days a month, according to Middletown police Lt. W. Scott Reeve.
From Jan. 1 through June 30, 2016, there have been 2,028 calls for service by police canines. Police say that there have been 60 narcotic searches and 26 area searches/tracks during that period, according to police records.
The city has three dual-purpose German shepherds for drug detection as well as one black Labrador used by the special investigation unit for narcotics detection, according to Public Safety Director David VanArsdale.
The new canine will be dual-purpose for drugs and patrol, he said.
Unintentional drug overdose deaths in Ohio skyrocketed to more than 3,000 in 2015 — an average of more than eight per day — according to a state health department report released Thursday.
Accidental overdose deaths increased in the state by more than 500 in one year — from 2,531 in 2014 to 3,050 in 2015, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
A significant portion of those deaths are due to the synthetic narcotic fentanyl, which is 30-to-50 times more potent than heroin. Fentanyl-related deaths in Ohio spiked 13-fold from 2013 to 2015. Just 84 people died from fentanyl-related overdoses in 2013. That number increased to 503 in 2014 and more than doubled to 1,155 last year.
RELATED: Spike in heroin overdoses may be result of more daring addicts
About the Author
