On Thursday night the City of Las Cruces held a town hall to present the city’s most recent crime statistics, and to discuss how drugs like fentanyl and meth are affecting the community.
Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story was joined by experts in various fields related to the fentanyl crisis to discuss the increased use of drugs in the city, and to field questions from the public.
According to the latest statistics from the Las Cruces Police Department, there were 424 documented instances of violent crime through August of this year, an increase of 46% compared to the same time period last year, while the total instances of property crimes remained relatively steady at 3,773.
Additionally, the department said that year-to-date it has seized over 64,000 fentanyl pills and 15.8 pounds of fentanyl powder.
Chief Jeremy Story said that it’s going to take a coordinated effort with stakeholders in the community in order to treat instances of addiction and reduce crime.
“If you could wave a magic wand and get rid of fentanyl and meth and the addiction associated with it, you’d still see crime, you’d still see homelessness. But you’d see a drastic reduction in those things.”
Public health expert Athena Huckaby of Ideal Option joined Chief Story for the town hall, and said to fight addiction, it’s essential for individuals to have access to effective treatment options like buprenorphine and methadone, an area that southern New Mexico is lacking.
"Only one of our hospitals in town both starts people and continues people on medications for opioid use disorder if they land in the hospital,” Huckaby said.
Chief Story went on to say that he hopes the roughly $24 million in opioid settlement funds coming to the city and county won’t be spread too thin.
“If we try to do too many things with it, we’re going to end up accomplishing nothing,” Story said. “The state is also spending a lot of money from their settlement funds, so what we don’t want to do is duplicate efforts. I would like to use the money to fill the gaps and not duplicate efforts of the state or what’s already happening here.”
As Las Cruces confronts rising crime stats and a growing drug crisis, Chief Story emphasized the importance of stakeholder collaboration and the strategic use of settlement funds for maximized community impact.
