Joliet's Heroin Deaths Rose: Police Chief

JOLIET, IL —At last week's Joliet City Council meeting, Police Chief Al Roechner presented data showing that the city's homicides and shootings continued to increase in 2019. The chief also offered data indicating heroin drug deaths climbed in 2019.

Roechner did not present any slides as part of his crime statistics summary presentation to the council concerning Joliet's heroin deaths. However, when asked by Councilman Don "Duck" Dickinson about heroin, Roechner revealed that the Joliet Police Department investigated 33 drug deaths linked to heroin use last year.

Related: Heroin Deaths In Joliet, Will County Highest In Years

"With the use of heroin," Dickinson asked, "is that still climbing, or is it kind of leveled off?"

"It's been climbing," Roechner answered. "The problem is the numbers go to 2017 from the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], so new numbers will be out there. But I know in New York, their opioid overdoses have tripled their homicide rate, so I do believe they are still going up."

As far as Joliet was concerned, "our numbers, just so you know, in 2017, we had 25 people that died from a heroin overdose. [In] 2018, we had 26 people that died, and in 2019 we had 33.

"We did have a week where seven individuals did perish with overdoses ... the opioids were laced with fentanyl. Our officers working in our specialized units did some great work in taking down a lot of the bad drugs, so to speak, so that might be the anomaly there, but it is on the rise everywhere," Roechner told the council.

About 75 Joliet police officers are also equipped to carry and use Narcan, a medication that can block the effects of opioids. As a result of officers carrying Narcan, 29 lives were saved in 2019, the chief said.

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