2018 Heroin Deaths In Will County Tallied

JOLIET, IL - Despite hosting a number of public awareness programs and round table discussions involving key Will County government officials, the number of heroin overdose deaths across Will County didn't decline significantly from 2017 to 2018, a Joliet Patch review of the Will County Coroner's Office statistics shows.

As of Monday, Coroner Patrick O'Neil's staff had confirmed 81 deaths in Will County related to heroin and fentanyl, plus one additional heroin case involving a traffic fatality, which ups the totals to 117 overall drug overdose deaths of which there were 82 heroin deaths for 2018.

There is still a chance that last year's overdose deaths could increase slightly because toxicology screens often take several weeks before the lab results are known.

Here's Will County heroin death totals from recent years:

• 2018, Will County had 82 heroin deaths.
• 2017, Will County had 85 heroin deaths.
• 2016, Will County had 78 heroin deaths.
• 2015, Will County had 53 heroin deaths.
• 2014, Will County had 35 heroin deaths.

During last November's race for Will County Sheriff, Republican challenger Jim Reilly argued that incumbent Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley has not done enough to target heroin dealers infiltrating Will County.

"The growing heroin and opioid epidemic in Will County must be tackled head-on. Overdoses, deaths, and property crimes have increased drastically in recent years right here in Will," Reilly's press release stated. "These drugs were nearly nonexistent in our communities ten years ago but are now being found everywhere, including our high schools, on a regular basis. My administration will aggressively target the drug dealers who victimize users and cause the devastating loss of loved ones due to overdose deaths."

About five weeks before the election, the Will County Sheriff's Office issued a press release announcing that the "Sheriff’s Offices’ ongoing efforts in fighting the heroin epidemic in our communities has yielded a heroin bust in excess of $2.1 million near I-55 and the I-355 exit.

“We are stopping these drug traffickers in their tracks. Our Gang Suppression Unit accomplished this with the help of Romeoville and Bolingbrook police officers. Through our coordinated efforts we removed 21 kilos of heroin off the street," Sheriff Kelley stated in the press release.

Kelley, a Democrat, defeated Reilly by a large percentage of votes.

Here is a community by community breakdown of Will County's 82 heroin deaths for 2018 plus a comparison of where the heroin deaths from 2017 happened:

• Joliet/Joliet Township 33 in 2018, 36 in 2017
• New Lenox/New Lenox Township 8 in 2018, 5 in 2017
• Lockport/Lockport Township 5 in 2018, 8 in 2017
• Romeoville 5 in 2018, 7 in 2017
• Bolingbrook 5 in 2018, 2 in 2017
• Homer Glen 4 in 2018, none in 2017
• Crest Hill 4 in 2018, 1 in 2017
• Shorewood 3 in 2018, 3 in 2017
• Braidwood 3 in 2018, none in 2017
• Mokena 2 in 2018, 5 in 2017
• Wilmington 2 in 2018, 1 in 2017
• Steger 2 in 2018, 1 in 2017
• Frankfort 1 in 2018, 1 in 2017
• Will Township 1 in 2018, none in 2017
• Manhattan 1 in 2018, 1 in 2017
• Channahon 1 in 2018, none in 2017
• Plainfield/Plainfield Township 1 in 2018, 2 in 2017
• Tinley Park 1 in 2018, none in 2017

*None in 2018:Wesley Township, 1 in 2017

Peotone, 1 in 2017

Minooka 1 in 2017

Orland Park 1 in 2017

Aurora 1 in 2017
Lemont 1 in 2017
Custer Township 1 in 2017
* Some of the deaths from 2017 did not include the jurisdiction where it occurred and two were listed as being at the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Main image via from 2016 Joliet Patch article on the winners of State's Attorney James Glasgow's Dangers of Heroin Art Scholarship Contest.