New police drug initiative long overdue

The Suffolk County Police Department announced it will be cracking down on the movement of drugs through our neighborhoods. Given the consistent rise in opioid addiction and overdoses across the county, as well as drug-related crime, we say an initiative like this is long overdue.

Over the past several weeks, investigators have executed nine search warrants and seized about $300,000 in cash; 2,672 grams of cocaine, 464 grams of heroin and 80 grams of oxycodone; seven guns; and drug paraphernalia. While we applaud the police department for its efforts, more could have been accomplished if cops used their resources to crack down on these problem areas much sooner.

Police said their new initiative to target houses of known drug activity is, in part, fueled by resident complaints. Maybe they couldn’t hear as well as we could, but residents have always been complaining and reporting about this issue — not just recently.

The Special Operations Team detectives who are now being utilized in each precinct to work with residents to obtain information on who is dealing what and where — and to execute search warrants on these locations and make arrests — will cost money. That money is well worth it. While the police department has used a limited budget as an excuse for why actions like these sometimes can’t be taken, if Suffolk County wants to bust up drug activity, police resources should be made a bigger priority. One would be hard-pressed to find a resident who disagrees.

For now though, we are pleased to see the police department being responsive to community concerns about known problem drug locations.