Increased heroin addiction in Madison could be responsible for a recent spike in robberies, Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said at a news conference Wednesday.
Although violent crime in Madison dropped 9 percent and property-related crimes fell 10 percent since the same period last year, the Madison Police Department reported 45 robberies in September, the highest total in the past two years.
""[Heroin addiction] is an epidemic in our community,"" said Lt. Mary Lou Ricksecker, a member of Dane County's Narcotics and Gang Task Force. ""Not surprisingly, investigations of burglaries and robberies indicate that a majority of these crimes are related to drug dependence.""
Ricksecker said many of the fast-food robberies in early October were related to drug dependency, including an Oct. 7 incident in which Gregory Bickford, 26, allegedly robbed a Cousins Subs at gunpoint before being fatally shot during an armed struggle with a Madison police officer. Ricksecker said Bickford has been identified in an ongoing federal heroin investigation.
Reported heroin overdoses have also increased in Madison, from 31 in 2007 and 78 in 2008 to 106 just through September 2009, and that excludes health-care, hospital and ER data, according to Ricksecker.
UW-Madison is not untouched by the drug, though Ricksecker said use is generally less prevalent than in the rest of the community.
According to Michael Florek, president of Tellurian UCAN Inc., a nonprofit that provides addiction treatment, heroin has become more accessible in the last decade, especially for teens and young adults. Teens get it through prescription drugs like OxyContin that contain opiates and are frequently stolen from household medicine cabinets, pharmacies and hospice centers.
""In the past three years, there's been a 20-fold increase in 16- to 28-year-olds coming in for treatment due to heroin and other opiates,"" Florek said.
Although Dane County offers treatment centers comparable to cities its size, Florek said it needs more free resources, since heroin addicts who cannot afford treatment often wait two months for care.
""We see [heroin] impact in a number of different ways, not only the collateral damage with robberies, muggings, et cetera, but also with overdoses, drug dealing that impacts the quality of life and many of our neighborhoods,"" Wray said.
