New London — Police Chief Margaret Ackley said her department is focusing all of its resources to combat the city's heroin problem as a survey of state records shows that proportionately more people are dying from heroin in New London than other municipalities in the state.  

According to statistics kept by the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner from January 2012 through September 2015, heroin-related overdose deaths have been occurring at a disproportionately high rate in New London for years.

Of the 10 municipalities in Connecticut with the highest number of heroin-related overdose deaths during that period, New London by far has the worst average rate: 4.27 deaths for every 10,000 residents.

The next highest rate is in Torrington, where the average is 2.62 deaths per 10,000 residents.

On Thursday, Police Chief Margaret Ackley, who said she's made a point to attend all of the local roundtables and other events regarding the topic, said New London police are doing "everything we can" to combat the issue.

"We have all our resources on it day and night," she said. "We have a representative on the regional task force. We're one of the few towns that has our own individual narcotics division. We're part of the statewide narcotics division. We're part of every task force that comes through town."

Deputy Chief Peter Reichard said New London police also work with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Administration and federal prosecutors during their investigations.

Reichard said of the department's 240 evidence entries so far this year, 38 included "heroin-related" evidence, from pills and powders to syringes and scales.

In recent months, Reichard said, uniformed officers doing narcotics enforcement have recovered a "steady" amount of such evidence. Much of the evidence comes from motor vehicle stops and responses to routine calls for service.

"What are we, 48 days into the year?" he asked, flipping through the evidence sheets. "For a small city of 27,000 people, there's a problem here, and it doesn't just affect the person using it."

When Lawrence + Memorial Hospital officials on Jan. 28 said they'd seen an "unprecedented number" of heroin overdoses in a two-day span — 12, with one being fatal — New London police shifted the focus of their investigations.

"We concentrated on more of the heroin investigations as opposed to some other search warrants we were working on for marijuana and other products," Reichard explained. "We had a number of people who changed their focus toward that area."

New London police hypothesized during the late January spike in overdoses that fentanyl might have re-emerged in the city, Reichard said. State laboratory test results confirmed much of the heroin seized during that period did contain fentanyl.

Fentanyl, which is 30 to 50 times stronger than heroin, is a synthetic opiate whose intended use is for patients with severe pain, especially those with cancer.

From 2012 to September 2015, records from the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner show that heroin was involved in 44 of New London's 65 accidental overdose deaths.

Of those 44 deaths, three included fentanyl as a contributing factor.

Only Bridgeport (58), New Haven (76), Waterbury (82) and Hartford (113), all of which have substantially higher populations than New London, had more heroin-related overdose deaths in the same time span.

New London also has a high rate of non-resident, heroin-related overdose deaths within the city, with at least 16 of the 44 deceased having come from somewhere else.

"People are coming to the city to look for their drugs," Reichard said. "You don't see a lot of the sales in the suburbs. It's out there, we know it is, but it's more prevalent here."

Ackley said police are approaching the problem with a long-term perspective.

"Flashing the pan isn't the answer for us here and it never has been," Ackley said. "We're not just going to jump in and do something for a day or a week or a month. Everything I've learned from going to all these meetings about drug addiction and recovery is it's a long-term process and has to be dealt with every single day of a person's life."

That aspect of the heroin epidemic, Ackley said, has less to do with police than with trained medical personnel.

"When you talk about supply and demand, in law enforcement, we tend to focus on supply. We try to get the dealers to stop through arrests and convictions," Ackley said. "But demand is really where this needs to be addressed, and that is a health issue."

"Addictions are a terrible thing," she continued. "We all see it amongst our friends, our families, our acquaintances. It's a tragedy, the number of addictions that are out there. But that has to be dealt with from a medical perspective."

Editor's note: This version updates the heroin-related overdose death rates for clarity. 

l.boyle@theday.com

Twitter: @LindsayABoyle