Paul Bass Photo
The scene on the Green Aug. 15.
The municipal response to the 120-plus “K2” synthetic cannabinoid poisonings that took place on the Green on Aug. 15 and 16 drew national attention.
Monday morning, the police, fire, and ambulance service emergency responders who kept people alive that day earned local recognition, too, celebrated for what they did on those two frenetic mid-August days against “overwhelming odds.”
Fire Lt. Lt. Ernest Jones helping a zoned-out man.
The occasion was the presentation by the University of New Haven’s Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science of community service awards to the New Haven Police Department, New Haven Fire Department and American Medical Response (AMR) ambulance company.
On hand with Mayor Harp, who offered appreciative remarks, were Fire Chief John Alston, Jr., Asst. Police Chief Tony Reyes, and AMR’s John McFarland representing their memberships.
Allan Appel Photo
Reyes and Alston, after receiving the unit awards.
They received the awards as part of the beginning ceremonies of the Institute’s annual Arnold Markle Symposium, whose theme this year is “Drug Related Deaths: Causes & Investigations.”
Individual New Haven leaders have received the Institute’s awards over the years, including political figures such as State Rep. Toni Walker in 2015 and Police Chief Dean Esserman back in 2013. This is the first time that entire departments have been recognized, said the Institute’s founder and one of the world’s foremost forensic scientists, Dr. Henry C. Lee.
Lee said the New Haven services’ “wonderful job” calls attention to how the current drug crisis requires community-wide responses that include prevention and education along with investigation.
“The award … reflects a symbol of the scale of the problem,” he said in informal remarks before the beginning of the program at UNH’s Bucknall Theater.
Former Fire Chief Marty O’Connor, Fire Marshal Ray Saracco, and Dr. Henry Lee.
About a hundred police, fire, and academic investigators were attending the day-long symposium, including Ray Saracco and five of his colleagues from the fire marshal’s office. Saracco said that Arnold Markle, the state’s attorney for the Judicial District of New Haven from 1968 until his death in 1987, was instrumental along with Lee in inaugurating innovative investigative initiatives like the trained accelerant canine detection program.
“He was a mentor to many of us,” added former New Have Fire Chief Marty O’Connor, who offered a prayer at the start of the proceedings.
“We want to use this [K2 event] to raise awareness of the challenges urban centers face and the coordinated response from all levels of government that will be required in the future. That’s one of the lessons,” said Mayor Harp.
Chief Alston said one of his department’s active take-aways is a greater capacity to “scrub the data” from the EpiCenter Syndromic Surveillance System state public health databases that have since August been made available to local officials.
That’s the centralized database that the state uses to gather pre-diagnostic patient data about emergency room visits from hospitals and urgent care centers in an attempt to better understand the latest trends in diseases and other public health concerns.
The database is updated every 15 to 30 minutes based on intake information uploaded by hospital staff. It records anonymized patient information like age, sex, race, home zip code, and reason for emergency room visit, but not name, address, or phone number.
In addition, the mayor said that this week she will be meeting with local and state officials about the deployment of what she termed a “street psychiatrist” and drug coaches who will be deployed to the Green to complement the new walking beats that have been in evidence.
The idea is to be better prepared for the next outbreak, to be able to triage care in a manner that sends fewer people to the hospital, and to identify, work with, and counsel vulnerable people, she added.
The other recipients included Dr. Barry Logan and Dr. J.M. Vyas, both recipients of forensic scientist awards; and Chinese painter Lin Yue, who received an award for distinguished international achievement.
Harp: Change Happening
After the presentation, Harp discussed the aftermath of the K2 poisonings, on her weekly “Mayor Monday” program on WNHH FM.
She said she has received a commitment from the state commissioner of addiction services to fund a new “street psychologist” position and two “recovery coaches” in and around the Green. The coaches are former addicts who have gotten clean, and advise current addicts on doing the same.
The state is currently in discussions with current contractees, like the Connecticut Mental Health Center and Columbus House, to figure out which agency to fund to manage the new positions.
The cops have intensified patrols of the Green since the overdoses, usually stationing six walking beats there during the day, Harp said. The APT Foundation has made good on promises to increase security at its Congress Avenue methadone clinic, she said.
The Proprietors on the Green, who own the Green, have staged events to increase public use of the park.
Click on the Facebook Live video for the full episode of “Mayor Monday” on WNHH FM.
This episode of “Mayor Monday” was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.
