Coeur d'Alene opioid task force already at work

COEUR d’ALENE — An opioid task force in the Coeur d’Alene Police Department doesn’t officially start until Oct. 1, but it’s already on the job.

Police Chief Lee White said the task force is working on six separate overdose-type cases and has made presentations at schools.

“They’re doing good work already,” White said Tuesday.

Sgt. Eric Boardman, who is still on patrol duties, will lead the two-person task force approved by the Coeur d’Alene City Council in February. It will have an annual budget of about $260,000.

White said there were too many opioid incidents going on now to wait until task force members could commit to their new roles full time, so they are doing what they can part-time.

“It’s on a limited basis now,” he said.

White previously told the Coeur d’Alene City Council that police are trying to increase their efforts to combat opioids and drug abuse in the community.

Police received nearly 200 service calls last year for overdoses. Most were nonfatal, but many more go unreported.

“It’s no secret there’s a bit of an opioid problem in the United States,” White said. “The city of Coeur d’Alene has the same issue.”

It also stretches across the Idaho-Washington border.

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown declared an emergency Tuesday to implement an integrated response to address the opioid crisis in the city.

“It is no surprise that our community is dealing with the horrific impacts of fentanyl and other opioids. It is taking the lives of our loved ones and neighbors, and requires swift action,” Brown said in a press release. “Today’s emergency declaration allows us to take a variety of efforts to combat this crisis and do so in a coordinated, strategic way.”

The declaration streamlines several directives related to both public health and public safety across the city, but primarily within the Second and Division streets corridor, “which is most acutely impacted by the opioid crisis,” the release said.

White said Coeur d’Alene's opioid problems are not as severe as Spokane’s, but he said police are prepared to combat those who bring illegal drugs across the state line into North Idaho.

Last year, 354 Idahoans reportedly died from opioid overdoses. In 2022, 42 people died due to overdoses in Kootenai County. Area law enforcement officials have said a particular problem is posed by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid estimated by the Centers for Disease Control to be more potent than morphine.

During a recent community forum about fentanyl and efforts to combat the drug in North Idaho, Josh Hurwit, U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho, said his office and local prosecutors are working together to prosecute fentanyl dealers and traffickers.

Capt. Jeremy Hyle, who leads the command staff at the Kootenai County jail, said in May that 54 people were incarcerated on charges related to fentanyl. Of those, 31% are Kootenai County residents.

“It’s not a Washington problem,” Hyle said during the community forum. “There are people from our community who are sitting in jail on fentanyl charges.”