There has been activity at the old Indiana State Police post on South Indiana 1 but until Thursday, law enforcement had kept quiet as to the nature of that activity.
Task Force Connersville was officially announced to the public at a press conference at City Hall.
Police Chief David Counceller said the department noticed in September an unusually high number of overdoses. In a 20-day period from Sept. 6-26, there were 20 overdoses and five deaths, mostly as a result of heroin.
"For a community of 13,300 people, that's a lot of overdoses," he said.
In October, the number of overdoses dropped to 10 with no deaths. In November, there were 11 overdoses with three deaths.
The drug problem is not a Connersville-only problem but can be found across the state, said Mayor Leonard Urban. The city was just hit hard with overdoses in the past few months with law enforcement trying to put an end to it.
"The agencies have come together and worked privately and courteously," he said. "Drugs hit families whether rich or poor, educated and not educated. We have lost 10,000 industrial jobs in the last 10 or 15 years and there is generational poverty. Our schools have about 80 percent free lunch which tells you what's happening."
At the local law enforcement level, the officers are trying to stop the dealing of drugs but at the other end, there is an effort to get help to those who want and need it, he said. Local people are coming together to help as much as possible through donations as shown by the fact Fayette County gives more per capita to charities than all other counties except one.
Through the media, the problem became known statewide which led Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter to call. He offered the assistance of ISP to combat the problem, Counceller said. From those discussion, Task Force Connersville was formed which began operations Nov. 4 at the old ISP post.
The Task Force includes Connersville Police Department, ISP, Fayette County Sheriff's Department, Indiana Department of Correction Parole Division, Fayette County Probation Department, Fayette County Prosecutor's Office, Indiana Excise Police and the ISP Meth Suppression Squad.
The meth squad had previously worked with local officials but has been working even closer since the task force formation, he said.
"The purpose is to arrest the drug dealers and stop drugs from coming into the community and to help get people off drugs," he said. "Heroin is our big problem but we have the whole variety of drugs and we want to help these people get off drugs. Being located between Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, we believe a lot of our drugs are coming from Ohio, as well as some other sources."
When the large of number of overdoses first became apparent, some speculated there may have been a bad batch of heroin in the community but there is no evidence of that, Counceller said. There may have been a stronger batch which caused overdoses but there was nothing like rat poison used to cut the heroin.
Unlike some places that may have a large drug kingpin, in Connersville it seems to be more that users are also dealers so it's spread out, he said.
Drug users have turned to heroin in recent years because it is inexpensive compared to prescription drugs. Many heroin users started on prescription drugs for pain or a health problem and never could get off the drug, Counceller explained.
Deputy Police Chief Dennis Perkins is serving as community outreach coordinator for the task force.
"The only way to get the community going in the right direction was not just to put them in jail but to get them help," Perkins explained. "We wanted to get people in their lives that would help them kick the habit. The only way to really beat it is to get rid of the demand, get people off it."
Putting people in jail is not the final answer. The families have to be educated. School children must be told what drugs can do to their lives, he added.
Several churches and their pastors have become involved and will begin going into the homes to do some counseling and to be there for the families, he said. Agencies and families have called to provide names of people that need and want help.
Some churches have offered funding for the treatment and offered vans to take the people to treatment, he said. It is very impressive to see the community come together.
"Do I see us going in the right direction; yes," he said. "Do we still have a lot of work? Yes we do. We've had several referrals to treatment facilities. We're trying to get them connected to the help that is out there."
When looking at the list of overdoses, the average age of the overdoses in September was around 25 but since then, a few older people have overdosed, raising the average, Counceller said. Most of those arrested by the Task Force are in their 20s although a few are older.
"It's very challenging for the police because we wonder what's going on with our youth," he said. "In addition to the lost industries and unemployment, it seems we attract some of the drug users. I've been on the force for 35 years and there are many I've never heard of before."
Most of the crime in the city, up to 80 or 90 percent, is drug related in some manner, he said. They steal from family and friends and commit burglaries and armed robberies.
The city has had to downsize the police force due to declining revenues not only as a result of lost industry but as a result of the tax caps imposed by the state, Urban said. The state must find a way for smaller cities to fund public safety.
"You can talk to mayors anywhere in Indiana and they will tell you the same thing," he said.
Counceller said it's up to those using drugs to get off.
"It's their choice to get off," he said. "We can put out there the tools they need to get help but if they don't take it, there is nothing we can do. We've got the deaths to prove it. It's frustrating for law enforcement."
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