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Wheeling Police: Fatal Overdoses in the City Doubled in 2018

Photo by Alex Meyer Wheeling Police Department Chief Shawn Schwertfeger examines the department’s 2018 crime statistics report, released Tuesday.

Click Here for Wheeling Police Department 2018 Crime Stats

WHEELING — City police officers responded to 13 overdose deaths in 2018, and 132 overdose calls overall, according to data released Tuesday by the Wheeling Police Department.

Chief Shawn Schwertfeger released the department’s annual crime statistics, and the numbers show a slight decrease in serious crimes from 2017 to 2018, Less-serious crimes, meanwhile, increased 17 percent.

At a time when drug overdoses are overwhelming some communities, the statistics in Wheeling show a cause for concern.

The department has seen a steady increase in overdose deaths since 2015, when officers responded to only one death from a drug overdose. That rose to three overdose deaths in 2016, six in 2017 and 13 this past year.

Overdose calls have more than doubled since 2015, when officers responded to 58. That rose to 98 overdose calls in 2016, 110 in 2017 and 132 in 2018.

According to the report, “overdoses were NOT just heroin related — but multiple types of narcotics.”

Schwertfeger attributed the increased calls for overdoses to the ongoing opioid epidemic occurring in the region and nationally.

The vast majority of overdoses last year were from opioids, though some were also from crystal methamphetamine, he said.

“That’s probably the most disturbing thing that I’m dealing with right now as chief,” Schwertfeger said of methamphetamine. “We’re still dealing with the opiates, but now we have crystal methamphetamine, and that’s a whole different beast. There’s much more violence associated with it, even on behalf of the user.”

To help combat the problem, the department recently partnered with Serenity Hills Life Center, an addiction treatment facility. When Wheeling police officers encounter an overdose, in addition to their routine work, they will call the center’s outreach specialist to have them work with the person and set up treatment, Schwertfeger said.

The department plans to release more information on this partnership soon, he added.

Other aspects of the report paint a better picture for the city. Serious crimes, which the department labels “Group A” offenses, decreased 5 percent from 2018 when compared to 2017. The number of assaults, sex offenses, burglaries and robberies all decreased in that time period.

“That’s great. That’s what we strive for,” Schwertfeger said of the drop in serious crimes.

According to the report, Group A offenses decreased from a total of 2,155 in 2017 to 2,042 last year. However, some of the Group A offenses increased, such as the number of prostitution arrests, vehicle thefts and drug-related calls.

In addition, Group B offenses, or crimes categorized as less serious, increased 17 percent from year to year. Schwertfeger said this was because the department targets high-crime areas based on analysis, complaints from citizens and crime watch groups.

“So you throw a bunch of resources into a specific area with a focus of enforcement and collecting intelligence,” Schwertfeger said. “That’s why Group B is up. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it just means officers are out there doing their job.”

Some of the uptick in certain Group A offenses, such as prostitution, were due to targeted policing as well, Schwertfeger said. From 2017 to 2018, the number of prostitution arrests in the city increased from four to 12 because the department focused on prostitution in certain areas during the fall.

“There were a few categories that were up, that happens all the time,” Schwertfeger said. “The ultimate goal is to have both Group A and B on a downward trend. Any downward trend in Group A is phenomenal.”

The department also saw a 3 percent decrease in calls of service from year to year, which Schwertfeger said is part of a downward trend over the past five or so years. One of the main reasons for that, he said, is because the department currently has seven vacancies, so fewer officers are on duty to report suspicious behavior or witness traffic infractions.

The chief also pointed to the department’s traffic enforcement as a success. Traffic citations increased by 29 percent, from 1,353 in 2017 to 1,750 in 2018, while crashes decreased by 3.5 percent from year to year, according to the report.

“We’ve been focusing on that the last couple of years and were significantly focusing on that this past year,” Schwertfeger said. “All of this effort is why you see citations are up and crashes are down.”

City police officers also had 99 driving under the influence arrests in 2018, up from 51 arrests in 2017.

Additionally, the department has worked to reduce the number of false alarm calls that it receives, which increases officers’ efficiency in handling crimes, he said. Alarm calls decreased from 943 in 2017 to 786 in 2018, and all but six of those calls last year were false alarms, police spokesman Philip Stahl said.

City police officers issues nearly 400 more traffic citations from 2017 to 2018, up nearly 30 percent. Vehicle crashes were down slightly, from 1,129 responded to in 2017 to 1,089 in 2018.

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