Homicide numbers in Lake and Porter counties were encouraging in 2016, said the counties' respective coroners, but the number of overdose deaths were troublesome.
Overall, homicides in Lake County were down from 76 in 2015 to 64 in 2016, according to data from the coroner last updated Wednesday.
Even factoring in eight homicides that the Lake County coroner's office handled that came from Illinois, the total was up to 72, still below last year's total, said Scott Sefton, chief deputy in the coroner's office.
Seeing a decrease is "good news," Sefton said, especially being near Chicago, which had surpassed its previous year's total by hundreds.
"It's unreal the amount of homicides they have, and it's a shame," Sefton said.
Seven cities in Lake County saw a decrease in homicides in 2016, and Gary went from 51 in 2015 to 46 in 2016, he said.
"It shows the police department is working hard at getting things in line out there," Sefton said. "They've got a very tough job."
The other six cities with decreases were Hammond (seven to six), East Chicago (nine to five), Cedar Lake (one to zero), Hobart (two to zero), Munster (one to zero) and St. John (one to zero).
A handful of cities — Dyer, Crown Point, Whiting, Griffith and Highland — remained the same from year to year, at one or zero.
Four Lake County cities saw a slight increase. Merrillville went up from two in 2015 to five in 2016, Lake Station from one to two, and Schererville and Lowell each went from zero to one.
In Porter County, there were no homicides in 2016 as of Friday, said Porter County Coroner Chuck Harris. The county typically does not see "a ton of homicides," he said, but over the past 20 years, there's usually an average of about three homicides each year.
"Then we get into the drug overdoses, and that's when it starts going downhill, unfortunately," Sefton said.
Lake and Porter counties each saw an increase in drug overdose deaths, and while the total tallies through December were not available, since toxicology reports can take weeks to complete, the coroners had numbers through most of the year.
In 2015, Lake County recorded 80 confirmed drug overdose deaths, with 46 heroin-related and nine involving fentanyl, according to Sefton.
As of the end of September 2016, there were 79 drug overdose deaths, with 43 heroin-related and 14 involving fentanyl, on track to outnumber 2015.
Porter County had 32 opiate overdoses in 2016, with 20 of those heroin-related and three fentanyl-related. In 2015, there were 23 total, with 12 heroin and two fentanyl, according to Harris.
"The issue of drug overdoses is going to be up, and it's a shame. It continues to climb," Sefton said.
Lake and Porter counties aren't alone in tackling an opiate and heroin issue, and they join other communities in tackling a crisis across the country.
The Governor's Task Force on Drug Enforcement, Treatment and Prevention, which included people from Northwest Indiana such as Department of Children and Family Services Director Mary Beth Bonaventura and Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter, went around Indiana to hear from experts and released their final report in December giving their recommendations on how the state should move forward to tackle the issue.
"There is definitely no single solution to a problem of this proportion, however, if we as a community all work on prevention, education and treatment, we have a fighting chance against this epidemic," said Harris in an email.
Porter County Sheriff David Reynolds has spoken out on the issue and gone around to area schools promoting prevention and education.
Lake County Sheriff's Department announced a year-end sweep before Christmas, with 30 arrest warrants and 62 charges for people law enforcement thought were involved in major heroin and cocaine distribution rings in Lake County.
"I know the police departments are working hard at trying to cut off the supply coming down from Chicago area, along with the DEA, they're working hard too," said Sefton, but " ... it's going to take time to get things, hopefully, back to where they should be."