VALPARAISO — When police officers come across what they suspect to be drugs, they traditionally have had to put themselves at risk to carry out preliminary tests to identify the substance.
This risk is as great as ever now with the growing appearances of Fentanyl, which is a highly toxic drug that can easily be ingested by officers or others by simply opening a packet containing the substance, according to Porter County Sheriff Sgt. Jamie Erow.
Area police hope to avoid this risk with the purchase of a hand-held TruNarc instrument, which would allow officers to carry out preliminary tests of substances without having to open packages, she said.
"It's really a great instrument," Erow said.
The purchase is among the $164,224 in requests pending final approval Tuesday night by the Porter County Council on behalf of the Porter County Substance Abuse Council.
The funding is collected by the county's judges from drunken driving and drug offenders, and awarded each year to various government and other entities combating substance abuse.
The funding was embroiled in controversy a few years when the judges began collecting less in hopes of gaining leverage over how the money was distributed and to encourage greater transparency.
This year's funding totals $164,224, with 30 percent going toward administrative costs, 26 percent going toward prevention/education, 23 percent going toward criminal justice services and 21 percent going toward treatment/intervention, according to the funding proposal provided by the Substance Abuse Council.
While the Porter County Sheriff's Department is the applicant for TruNarc unit, the intention is to share it with other police agencies in the county and include their officers in the initial training, Erow said. The county drug unit already has a TruNarc instrument, but access to it from outside that group is limited.
Another large recipient of this year's funding is Porter County PACT, a community-based criminal justice agency, which is slated to receive $18,000.
The money will be used to help fund the coordinator's position at Recovery Connection, a recovery resource center in a converted, three-story home at 254 S. Morgan Blvd. in Valparaiso operated by PACT, said Coordinator Megan Johnston.
Johnston said she is responsible for maintaining a network of support services for clients, coordinating volunteers, maintaining services and building funding.
This year's funding proposal contains a new request of $7,719 for a consultant to carry out more uniform evaluations of applicants and measure the impact of the efforts funded by the Substance Abuse Council, said Executive Director Dawn Pelc.