Heroin Addiction Connected to Crime in Northbrook

Heroin addiction is a huge factor for crimes in Northbrook, Police Chief Chuck Wernick said during a north Suburban YMCA forum about heroin abuse last month, the Northbrook Star reports.

“Shoplifting is the biggest crime we have,” he said. “And a lot of the people who are doing that are junkies.”

Wernick showed that since the beginning of 2013, 44 police reports have mentioned the word “heroin” and that number could have been even higher, noting that a man arrested for armed robbery earlier this year had just left a treatment program.

The fact that the problem extends past urban centers such as Chicago to more affluent communities like Northbrook is no surprise to Fire Chief Jose Torres, who during the forum discussed his experience working in California administering Naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of heroin.

“It’s not just people in the ghettos, the barrio. It’s everywhere,” Torres said.

more via the Northbrook Star