Hinsdale, NH Police Department Response Times Decimated by Heroin Epidemic

Right, the Hinsdale Police department has had prolonged issues with a lack of proper funding...

The choice with small town America, either you have great schools or a great police department...you can't have both.

We should get a yearly synopsis from the courts and prosecutors on the capabilities and function of the local police department. But this is the brotherhood of the system, nobody want to criticize each other. They don't want to give ammo to those facing the courts.   

Reposted from 8/12/16

• Rumors are the Winchester Police Chief quit over the stresses of the heroin epidemic.
• Some lower level heroin crimes are not being prosecuted in order to conserve severely limited police and court resources.
• Hinsdale because situated in the "special tristate area" is the hot bed of heroin related crime in our region. Hinsdale has the highest police case load in the Manadnock and Cheshire county area.
• Last week the Hinsdale police department opened up 10 new female assault or sexual assault cases. 
• Police Chief Faulkner: "If I had to report all the crime committed in Hinsdale to our citizens nobody would want to live here."
  
• Police Chief Faulkner: "There are some really nasty and dangerous "bad guys" now living within our midst".

Update 8/13

This is way beyond a local, city, state problem...it is a national security concern. It is destabilizing the police departments and courts on a massive scale. It is intensifying gang behavior and law breaking on a massive level.

We need to embargo countries and prepare to military enter countries in order to curtail production of heroin or fentanyl. We need to take out and disrupt the organized gang activity. If a country can't control the production of heroin or fentanyl aiming to sell into the USA, then your indifference to the problem is a declaration of war on the USA. We need to declare war on a country so the rest of the nation states will begin to control the their heroin production. And cut off any monies we are sending to heroin producting nations.     

Keene firefighters respond to overdoses

Posted: Saturday, August 13, 2016 8:00 am            

Keene firefighters respond to overdoses

                                           

By Cheyenne Vaughn Sentinel Staff

                                                           

Keene firefighters administered Narcan for three opioid overdoses on Thursday. 

The department responded to as many as five overdoses, according to Keene Deputy Fire Chief Jeffrey Chickering, but administered Narcan — an opioid antagonist — for only three. 

Two of the overdoses that Narcan was used for appeared to be heroin overdoses, Chickering said, and the third was for another type of opioid. 

Chickering declined to comment on a potential cause for the unusually high number of Narcan uses Thursday, but said that numbers do fluctuate sometimes.

We numbers like these below for a small town like Keene, NH, can't you imagine how the new case loads would gum up the bureaucracies and paperwork of the courts and police. Right, we are talking massively increasing the size of the police force and building new jails on a industrial scale. This thing is going to echo through generations of families.

"As of Aug. 1", firefighters had administered Narcan 93 times for 48 suspected opioid overdoses, according to Keene Fire Chief Mark F. Howard. 

So far this year, there have been three confirmed deaths from opioids in Keene. The class of drugs includes fentanyl, oxycodone and other prescription painkillers, as well as heroin.

 State officials: 196 confirmed drug deaths in 2016

Posted: Friday, August 12, 2016 12:00 pm | Updated: 12:05 pm, Fri Aug 12, 2016.


State officials: 196 confirmed drug deaths in 2016

By Sentinel Staff SentinelSource.com

Posted on Aug 12, 2016

by CLARK

CONCORD — The number of confirmed drug deaths in New Hampshire this year has hit 196, the state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner announced Thursday. Another 101 cases are awaiting toxicology results.

By year’s end, officials are projecting 482 people in New Hampshire will have died from drug overdoses, as the state weathers epidemic levels of opioid abuse. Despite signifying a third consecutive record-breaking year in New Hampshire’s drug-death toll, the projection is actually slightly down from an earlier forecast; as of last month, state officials were estimating 494 people would die from overdoses before 2017.

“It’s based on what week we’re in of the year and how many cases we’ve had so far and how many cases that are pending that look like drug deaths,” said Kim Fallon, chief forensic investigator for the medical examiner’s office. “So I imagine it will go up and down.”

The potent painkiller fentanyl continues to be responsible for the lion’s share of confirmed deaths; it was involved, either alone or in combination with other drugs, in 139 of them. Heroin has been linked to 12.

Approximately 13 percent of confirmed drug deaths so far this year — 26 — were caused by drugs other than opioids.

In addition to fentanyl, opioids include painkillers such as morphine, oxycodone and codeine, as well as heroin.

The 482 projected deaths would mark a 9.8 percent increase over the 439 people who officials confirmed died from drugs in 2015, and a 48 percent increase from the 326 deaths the year before.

Posted: Friday, August 12, 2016 12:00 pm

More 'smash-and-grab' car break-ins reported in area 

By CALLIE GINTER Sentinel Staff SentinelSource.com

Posted on Aug 12, 2016

by Callie Ginter

Police are investigating more vehicle break-ins in the area — this time, incidents in Brattleboro and Brookline, Vt.

The latest reports from Brattleboro and Vermont State Police come on the heels of Chesterfield police’s recent announcement that several so-called “smash and grabs” — burglaries in which someone smashes a vehicle window and grabs anything of worth — have happened in Chesterfield, Hinsdale and Winchester.

Within the past two weeks, there have been at least six vehicle break-ins in Brattleboro, according to Brattleboro police Lt. Michael Carrier.

Most of them occurred at the public boat launch on Old Ferry Road and at the parking area at the Harris Hill Ski Jump, he said. Similar to other recently reported cases, windows were smashed and valuables were stolen, according to Carrier, who said mostly wallets and purses are being taken.

He noted that valuables shouldn’t be left in a car — especially not in plain sight.

In Brookline, Vt., Vermont State Police got a call from David Levenbach of Brattleboro, reporting that his vehicle had been broken into around 4:15 p.m. Thursday. Levenbach’s had parked his Subaru at the Trailhead parking area in Brookline and left it for nearly four hours. Nothing was reported stolen. Vermont State Police’s agency in Westminster, Vt., which handled the case, was unreachable to comment on whether the incident is related to the other break-ins.

Meanwhile, Jennifer M. Matthews, 40, of Westmoreland said her black Nissan Altima was broken into last Sunday. She said she and her husband were at Sheep’s Rock, a popular swimming spot on Route 63 in Westmoreland, around 5 p.m.

They were out of their car for 20 minutes at most, she said, and when they returned to their vehicle, the driver’s side window was smashed out, and her husband’s wallet and watch were stolen from the console.

“We literally had no idea. We just walked down by the water and back up. and we didn’t even notice it. ... He walked to his side of the car and he was like, ‘What the hell?’ ” she said this morning.

“We were in shock, that doesn’t happen here.”

But in recent weeks, it has been happening, according to area police departments.

The Chesterfield Police Department cautioned the public via Facebook last Saturday of an influx of “smash and grabs,” and stressed that belongings either be hidden or locked in the trunk of the vehicle.

Hinsdale Police Chief Todd Faulkner said Monday his department had 10 reports over the course of three days — five on Sunday and a couple more during the midnight shift that same night.

Most reports in Hinsdale came from either the Wantastiquet State Park parking lot or behind the old Wal-Mart on Field Road, he said.

Chesterfield police Chief Duane Chickering said that generally one or two “smash and grabs” are reported yearly in town and that six have been reported within the past two weeks.

Carrier said he can’t say if the Brattleboro break-ins are related to the series of other break-ins that happened in Chesterfield, Hinsdale, and Winchester over the past few weeks, but his department is working with those agencies to see if there is a connection.

The crimes are being actively investigated and police advise the public to park in more public places, hide valuables, and continue to lock their cars.

Winchester police have been unavailable for comment since last week.

Any information about the “smash and grabs” can be reported to either of the police departments: 355-2000 for Chesterfield police (Cheshire County dispatch), 802-257-7950 for Brattleboro police, or at 336-7766 for Hinsdale police. Information can also be shared anonymously online on their websites at www.nhchesterfield/police or www.town.hinsdale.nh.us.

Callie Ginter can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1409 or cginter@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @CGinterKS.