Chattanooga Police focusing on drug overdoses

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – The Chattanooga Police Department held their weekly press conference this morning.

They discussed that through the start of 2023, their data shows that crime is lower at this time of year versus this same exact time in 2020 overall.

However, they did highlight two fatal drug overdoses that occurred in the last week along East 23rd Street on February 17th and 19th.

They say this is a part of an overall concerning increase in drug overdoses in our community.

Harry Sommers, the Executive Chief for the Chattanooga Police Department said, “Our overdoses are up 13 percent, that somewhat is an increase and it’s so early in the year to figure out what that really means, but it is up. And the second thing, that is more important even for the early part of the year is the death by overdoses increased by slightly more than 50 percent, and that is a significant number.”

They did say that property crimes are taking a positive slide downwards.

They thank the work of their neighborhood policing units and investigators.