Law enforcement eyes opioid settlement cash for squad cars and body scanners
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
State and local governments are receiving billions of dollars in settlement money from companies that made or sold opioid painkillers. The funds are meant to address the ongoing addiction and overdose crisis, which is mostly driven by illicit drugs containing fentanyl. Many governments are spending some of the money on law enforcement - everything from patrol cars to roadside surveillance cameras - but will that actually help? Aneri Pattani with our partner KFF Health News reports.
ANERI PATTANI, BYLINE: Blood money - that's how Carrie Spears thinks of these opioid settlement funds.
CARRIE SPEARS: People died for this money, and I take that seriously.
PATTANI: She lost her 23-year-old nephew to a fentanyl overdose two years ago. She wants to see the funds go to treatment and social services that can prevent other deaths like his. But so far, her town of New Lexington, Ohio, has spent almost all of its settlement dollars on surveillance equipment and training for officers and canines.
They're not alone. Twenty-five thousand dollars in Colorado went to a conference for police and prosecutors about fentanyl. Bibb County, Ala., used $90,000 to buy pickup trucks for its sheriff. And counties in Michigan and Pennsylvania bought body scanners for their jails at roughly $200,000 apiece. People who support these decisions say equipping law enforcement is part of the larger community effort to address addiction.
Here's Shawn Bain. He spent his career running drug investigations for law enforcement and now leads trainings on how to spot and prevent drug use in the workplace.
SHAWN BAIN: That cruiser could very well stop the next guy with 5 kilos of cocaine. The vest could save an officer's life on the next drug raid. So I think people need to look beyond, oh, it's just a vest, or it's just a squad car, because those tools could impact and reduce drugs in their communities.
PATTANI: But research suggests taking drugs off the street may not save lives. In fact, sometimes it backfires. A study published earlier this year found that when police seized opioids, overdose deaths in the areas around the seizure actually doubled in the following week. Jennifer Carroll, one of the authors of the study, says that's likely because people seek out new drug supplies from dealers they don't know as well, which is riskier.
JENNIFER CARROLL: We're seeing more and more evidence that instead of keeping people safer, police activity is actually causing the very harms that police activity is supposed to be stemming.
PATTANI: When the problem is so big, every expense is a trade-off. Squad cars or treatment centers? Vests or recovery housing? These are the decisions government officials will be making for the next 15 years as billions more in settlement funds arrive.
DETROW: That was Aneri Pattani with our partner KFF Health News.
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