The Alliance Police Department, guided by the results of a community-wide survey conducted earlier this year, is prioritizing drug enforcement in the city.
At a meeting with the Alliance Times-Herald in July, Chief Philip Lukens explained that Alliance’s citizens were vocal about drugs being a problem in the community. He explained the types of drugs that are being found in Alliance, noting they have zero tolerance for drug dealers.
“Our citizens spoke, and we gathered that data,” said Lukens. “I needed to look at additional data. We have Fentanyl overdoses routinely in the city. Our officers administer Narcan routinely. If we add up our drug overdose deaths, we’re just very close to how many deaths are attributed to COVID-19 in Box Butte County. When we look at this in perspective, and we see all of the money the federal government threw at the COVID-19 response, we don’t have that for drugs, and we don’t have that for the drug problem in our community.
“Methamphetamine is a big deal,” Lukens said. “Heroin and Fentanyl are a big deal. They’re here. There’s a lot of it. We have a very zero tolerance policy for people who choose to distribute it. We have a very different policy for people who are addicted to it. We want to get them the resources that will get them out of that type of a lifestyle.”
Lukens explained that people who are wanting to make a change, and to break the addiction can bring their drugs and paraphernalia to the Alliance Police Department and not face criminal charges.
“We won’t charge them,” said Lukens. “We will connect them to a counselor. We want to get them in place to get better; to recover from that.”
Lukens explained the APD has formed several partnerships in an effort to halt the flow of drugs in Alliance.
“We routinely are buying drugs and going after the dealers,” Lukens said. “At some point in time, after we have had several buys on a dealer, then we recommend a warrant for their arrest. Should the warrant be signed, they are arrested for their violations. We are identifying people who are bringing drugs to our city, and the people who are distributing drugs through our city. We’re going after them, no questions asked.”
Lukens cited a drug bust at the Quality Inn in July as an example of the impact seen after a dealer is taken off the street. He noted that, at the time of the meeting, there hadn’t been a Fentanyl overdose since that drug bust.
“That’s not to say it’s stopped everything,” said Lukens. “What we do know is we impacted the distribution network in our city. What we are going to continue to do is do that as hard and fast as we can with a limited amount of staff and a limited amount of time. Credit to the officers, when I’m talking about this being done, this means officers are working overtime. Officers are coming in on their days off to make a difference in the drug issues in our community, and we are seeing progress.”
Lukens said it is critical to stop the distribution channels and to limit the demand for drugs by helping people overcome dependency.
“At the end of the day, when there’s not the demand, the supply will dry up itself,” Lukens said.