Cedar Rapids to get new police officer in heroin initiative

CEDAR RAPIDS - Heroin-related problems here and elsewhere in Eastern Iowa are steering federal funds to an initiative that will allow the Cedar Rapids Police Department to hire a new police officer.

The new officer will take the place of an experienced one who will devote his or her time to Eastern Iowa Prevention, Treatment and Prosecution Initiative, Police Chief Wayne Jerman said on Monday.

The officer will organize town hall meetings, health fairs and public awareness campaigns to improve heroin prevention efforts even as the officer helps with the investigation and prosecution of heroin-related crimes.

The Police Department is working in concert with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa, and the funding is coming from the federal Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program.

In a letter to Jerman, Kevin Techau, U.S. Attorney for Iowa's Northern District, said he anticipated approval of funding in September.

Techau said heroin, methadone and other opioids were the cause of 45 percent of the drug-related deaths in Cedar Rapids in 2010, but by 2015, that percentage had climbed to 84.6 percent of all overdoses in the city, he said.

In Cedar Rapids, heroin was the cause of overdoses in nine cases in 2010 and it has been the cause of overdoses in 44 cases in the first half of 2015, Techau said.

Jerman said there was nothing unusual about the Police Department taking an interest in prevention and arrest and prosecution at the same time.

'When you talk about police, everybody automatically thinks it's about throwing handcuffs on people,” the chief said. 'But I've always maintained, that if you can prevent a crime, that's certainly the route we'd prefer to go.

'So if we can prevent someone from becoming addicted to heroin, that is certainly a win-win for everybody. You save another human being from being addicted to his horrible drug that's killing people,” he said.

He said drug addicts often commit crimes to support their habits and then end up in courts, jails and prisons at a significant cost to the public.