Suburban Scourge: Fighting Heroin Locally

With the rise in heroin use and trafficking in Essex County, District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett has spent years building strategies to combat the drug.

“I have been talking about the dangers of heroin and OxyContin since 2003 when we made a concerted effort to educate schools, police, parents and young people about heroin,” Blodgett said. Since 2003, Blodgett has implemented policies to fight the black market opiate trade, including a policy requiring all potential plea agreements with defendants charged with heroin trafficking or distribution be reviewed by himself or his senior staff to prevent heroin dealers from evading prosecution.

But the key battle strategy is seen at the community level – on the streets, in schools, at home – and local law enforcement departments have had to adapt their battle plans accordingly.

Broken Windows

Last month in North Andover, there were two separate heroin arrests at the same location on Massachusetts Avenue near Lawrence on the same day, with both arrests involved defendants from New Hampshire and Maine. A local business employee alerted police both times. And a few days later, an employee reported another suspicious person who was subsequently also arrested for heroin possession.

The drug is believed to be coming into town from nearby Lawrence, with users buying drugs in Lawrence and often stopping in North Andover for a fix before heading out of the area via 495.

In North Andover, heroin arrests have not spiked, but police are working tirelessly to keep the wave of heroin from washing into town.

In North Andover, police use proactive police work and what’s known as the “Broken Windows Theory” -- the idea that police should focus on solving small crimes in addition to big ones, because if a window is broken, people will break another window. And then they may go into the building and cause damage. And maybe light fires. The theory was adopted by many municipal leaders nationwide and sparked a movement of community policing. 

“We’ll address the small problems before they become bigger problems," North Andover Police Lt. Charles Gray said.

Incidentally, the social scientist who wrote the “Broken Windows Theory” lived in North Andover before he died last year.

And one interesting thing about drug arrests in North Andover is that they often stem from other incidents – shoplifting, car breaks, etc. 

“Officers are not just stopping the car and issuing a ticket, they’re taking the extra step to find out what’s going on here,” Gray said. “It’s the same with shoplifting. The underlying issue is drugs. So instead of getting a name and issuing a summons, the officers will make the arrest and ask questions." 

Community Eyes

Police can’t stop every drug dealer with car searches and theft arrests. They rely on residents to help. And that’s where Crime Watch comes in.

"We have a very strong neighborhood watch,” North Andover Detective Daniel
Cronin, who works closely with Crime Watch, said. “They provide information, because there are a number of neighborhoods that are impacted by this type of activity, dealers coming in and meeting their customers, and they share that information with us and we target those areas accordingly." 

“With the neighborhood watch, it’s not unusual for us to get emails and Facebook messages saying ‘this is something you may want to look into,’ and the problem can be resolved before it turns into a heroin arrest,” Gray said. “Going back to ‘Broken Windows,” if there’s a problem with hanging out by a certain area, put some lights up, put some extra patrols in the area, and that can eradicate a problem before it becomes an arrest."

In the next part of this series, we will examine how communities are confronting the root of the heroin scourge -- addiction.