Jeffrey Reynolds, president and CEO of Family & Children’s Association, got a text from an unlikely source at 9:37 p.m. on July 11, about a bad batch of drugs on the street.

Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine’s office, in coordination with the police department, was alerting the public about fentanyl-laced crack that hours earlier had killed three men in Coram and left one woman in critical condition. There was no time to waste if other lives could be saved.

Within minutes, Reynolds was reaching out to his network of counselors and health professionals who work with addicts and people in recovery to get a warning out.  

SCPD also posted a blitz of notices on social media and to news organizations. Medical crisis action team members were sent to patrol the neighborhood. Nonprofits worked the phones and streets to warn users about a batch of deadly poisoned narcotics 

Reynolds praised the outreach by Romaine and the SCPD. "It was lightning fast, comprehensive," Reynolds told the editorial board. "… I have no doubt it saved lives."

Not that long ago, law enforcement agencies and nonprofits didn’t coordinate much, if at all. The opioid epidemic changed that. As deaths from drugs surged, and countless families coped with tragedy, officials rightly realized they needed new methods to save lives. 

Reynolds said last week’s incident wasn’t the first time law enforcement on Long Island worked with nonprofits to save users’ lives, "… but it’s the latest and clearest example," he said. "… This does represent a shift in emphasis on health and safety coming first and prosecution coming second."

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina, who was instrumental in getting the word out, told the editorial board, "This is what humans do for other humans." Catalina said SCPD will replicate its response in the future as needed to save lives.

A 2021 report by the Police Executive Research Forum that solicited responses from law enforcement officials across the country found a move away from decades of primarily focusing on arrests for illegal drug trafficking, dealing and possession, and an increasing emphasis on preventing drug fatalities and helping users find recovery options.

The complexity and severity of the opioid crisis "…is a health crisis, it is a criminal justice crisis, and it is a human services crisis," the report states. And an oft-repeated comment from law enforcement was, "We’re not going to arrest our way out of this problem."

What happened on July 11 could have been a "typical" event, with users dying from ingesting narcotics poisoned with fentanyl and police making arrests. Instead, it became a model of how law enforcement and social services agencies can work together.  All Long Island law enforcement agencies should seek to replicate this model.

Poisoned narcotics are as much a public health crisis as they are a crime problem.

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