Crime & Safety
Police Say Drug Use Still a Problem
Also at the Fifth Precinct's community meeting: Residents help with burglary arrests and bullying over Facebook between two local high schools.
Drug use continues to be a problem for the in Patchogue and police are continuously working to combat the problem.
At the precinct's monthly meeting held earlier this month, officers discussed with attendees the continued growth in heroin use by teens, focusing on its causes and impact.
According to a video shown at the meeting, heroin is responsible for about 200 deaths in Suffolk County each year and has grown in popularity with young people because it's one of the cheapest drugs available today.
Find out what's happening in Patchoguewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The video said most teens start by stealing presciption opiates from their parents' medicine cabinets, then move to snorting or smoking heroin and finally end up injecting it once they build a tolerance.
The video concluded with directing those in need to a drug information and prevention website and is available in its entirety at the police station.
Find out what's happening in Patchoguewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Also at the meeting, Inspector Aristides Mojica, commanding officer of the Fifth Precinct, said police have noticed an increase in residents calling about suspicious activity, which has helped make arrests in the string of burglaries in North Bellport.
Police think one crew is responsible for as many as 50 residential robberies, and thieves may have committed three to four burglaries a day. Mojica said the crew has been arrested and charged in six incidents so far.
Officers said they received many calls this summer reporting a break in through a ground floor window with an air conditioning unit and encouraged residents to take precautions to make such windows inaccessible.
Finally, officers discussed bullying between Bayport-Blue Point High School and Sayville High School, some of which has occurred via Facebook.
The Fifth Precinct has set up officers in the Patchogue-Medford and Bellport school districts and is working to do the same with Sayville.
"Administrators are not burying their heads in the sand. Most districts work with us, some more than others. They ask us for help," Mojica said, "As a society we're more sensitive to things happening on school campuses."
The next Fifth Precinct community meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Dec. 7.
