Heroin scourge changes role of police in hard-hit areas

The officer, David Hubbard, is part of the Quick Response Team formed in July in Colerain Township, a sprawling suburb of some 60,000 people 15 miles northwest of Cincinnati.

Police, paramedics and addiction counselors combine to quickly steer users into treatment while their overdoses are still raw and frightening.

While some critics ask whether police are putting social work over law enforcement, authorities say that while they are stepping up efforts against dealers, they can’t arrest their way out of such a pervasive epidemic.

Some black Americans point out that gentler responses to the heroin use rising sharply among whites weren’t so available when the crack cocaine wave swept into urban neighborhoods.

“I applaud law enforcement agencies for treating the heroin epidemic as a public health, rather than criminal justice, problem,” said David Singleton, executive director of the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, in an e-mail.