These successes coincide with a greater focus by the city police on community-based efforts to combat crime in city neighborhoods and business corridors.
“We are addressing the situation,” longtime Miamisburg Mayor Dick Church Jr., said of the opioid drug issue. “It is a problem, and it’s a problem we’ve got to take care of.”
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The city’s proximity to the Interstate 75 and Ohio 725 interchange has long made it easy to reach. That has worked in the city’s favor, but also made it convenient for drug shipments.
“I think those highways play a pivotal role in drug offenses and drug uses that we see in the city,” said Miamisburg Police Chief John Sedlak.
He noted “what we see a lot of is that the distribution of the drugs into our city comes from outside the city.
“Not that we don’t have homegrown distributors or dealers. We do,” he added. “But by and large, it’s coming in from outside the city – even feeding into those (dealers). So it exacerbates the problem. There’s no doubt about that.”
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As part of the launch of investigations into crime trends in the region, the Dayton Daily News is focusing this week on what issues residents face in five local communities. Stories will be delivered throughout the year and past articles will be available at DaytonDailyNews.com.
Progress has been clear, statistics show. From 2012 through 2017, reported violent crimes in Miamisburg went from 31 to 14, according to the FBI Unified Crime Report. The number jumped to 34 in 2014 before dropping or holding relatively steady thereafter, records show.
During that same time frame, reported property crimes peaked at 672 in 2013, then steadily declined to 228 three years ago before increasing to 257 in 2017, according to the FBI.
A Dayton Daily News public records request to Miamisburg police for 2018 crime statistics was not fulfilled. Sedlak cited technical issues in a records management system that gives the police department “low confidence” in the accuracy of information currently accessible.
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Many of the changes made to fight crime in recent years have been related to drug use, which tends to have a direct impact on the amount of property crime a community experiences, Sedlak said.
Safety forces in Miamisburg were early advocates of the use of Narcan to help curtail drug overdose deaths, and have benefited from the work of the Montgomery County Drug Free Coalition and the county’s Getting Recovery Options Working (GROW) program aimed rehabilitating addicts, Sedlak said.
“We have been working with GROW and (Public Health-Dayton and Montgomery County), which has been embedded in our court system, allowing us to work with them directly in addressing these issues,” according to Sedlak.
“It’s not just an enforcement component, but a treatment and education component that we much prefer to help people heal,” he added. “The enforcement component generally only aids in getting them off the street for a short period of time. We are focused on the long-term solution of treatment and education.”
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Working with public health in Miamisburg Municipal Court for addicts “was also very productive because they were able to identify persons coming in that probably could make positive use of that kind of information and approach, but had not overdosed,” Sedlak said.
“And so our partnership was able to broaden the base of people that we could reach out to, and we had quite a few people that we were able to talk into the benefits of rehabilitation,” he added.
From 2014 to 2016, the city recorded 37 drug overdose deaths, 10 coming in that final year, records show. Overdose deaths then peaked in 2017 with 26, 20 of them in the first six months, according to the city. There were 11 deaths in 2018 and so far one overdose death this year in Miamisburg, according to the county coroner’s office website.
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Part of that decline came from emergency responders gaining better access to drugs, like Narcan, that counteract the effects of opioids. Miamisburg Police used Narcan 46 times in the first six months of 2017 after using it just 30 times in all of 2016. The Miami Valley Fire District – which serves both the city and Miami Twp. – used the antidote 380 times in the first six months of 2017 and 296 times in all of 2016, records show.
“I think the drug use in Miamisburg is down from what it was,” Church said, “and that’s going to be an ongoing situation, working that problem.”
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Older neighborhoods were among the early focus of Miamisburg CARES - Community Action for Revitalization, Engagement & Sustainability - a city-initiated program designed to engage citizens, community to improve neighborhoods and deter crime, Church said.
Church said the program started with a focus on aging neighborhoods with the goal of eventually hitting all areas in the city.
“We do have problems. But overall, I think we are trying to address them,” he said. “It’s a lot better today than it was several years ago.”
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FIFTH OF SIX PARTS
The Dayton Daily News this week examines crime concerns and trends in area communities.
SUNDAY: An overview of some of the largest communities.
MONDAY: Dayton
TUESDAY: Huber Heights
WEDNESDAY: Beavercreek
TODAY: Miamisburg
FRIDAY: Springboro
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