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Drug trade, crime hot spots major issues
Officers arrest two men on drug charges Oct. 2 at Po-Boys Tires in Huntington. In a recent question-and-answer session, Huntington Police Chief Skip Holbrook says local police have a long way to go in alleviating drug problems, but that significant seizures and arrests have made an impact.
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Huntington Police Chief Skip Holbrook recently sat down for an extended question-and-answer session with The Herald-Dispatch. The Nov. 25 interview covered many topics, and this installment of the interview will include his answers to questions about drug trafficking and various issues related to it, as well as local crime hot spots.
Holbrook requested the question-and-answer session in attempt to better inform the public. He said no question was off limits. Excerpts from the conversation are below.
QUESTION: Huntington's drug trade involves crack cocaine, heroin and pills. Which drug presents the most pressing concern?
ANSWER: I think generally speaking, crack cocaine has been the root of all the evil that has affected Huntington, but each of those drugs you mentioned have had a significant impact on our community.
The people that are using and selling heroin, it's kind of their own little subculture. I think it's fair to say they are not really violent, but we saw the results of the introduction of a strong form of heroin in our community. It resulted in scores of overdose deaths.
Crack cocaine has had a gripping effect on Huntington and it still does, but here recently we're seeing a pretty significant increase in prescription pills.
Q: Are we winning the local drug war?
A: That is a tough measuring stick.
I don't accept maintaining. I don't think you can ever eliminate it, but we can certainly do a better job of controlling it or displacing it. I think we're doing that. From the intelligence we're getting from the streets, we know we have a long way to go, but we've made some significant arrests and some significant seizures. It dries up the supply.
We can say without question that our heroin investigation had a direct supply impact because we know we haven't had any overdose fatalities since then.
I kind of stress quality as opposed to quantity when it comes to arrests. We can't just put everybody in jail. You could go out and fill a bus up everyday with people for drug arrests. We've got to have goals and objectives and have a purpose for what we're doing.
We certainly have got to keep that street-level presence up, but we're really trying to get to the root of the problem and eliminate that source. We want to affect the flow of drugs into the city, and we think that will have an effect on the demand.
Q: How much of eliminating the drug trade depends upon increased treatment, which is out of your department's hands?
A: If you can take a drug addict and cure him, make him not want the drug anymore, then you've basically taken a person out of our system. He is not going to have to be incarcerated. You're not going to have to repeatedly deal with him on the street. He is not going to be furthering a drug dealer's business.
I think there is an enforcement prong and there is a treatment prong, especially with our community. We have so many people addicted to the drugs and our demand is so high, that is what is bringing the people to town to sell drugs.
Q: By most accounts, the widespread heroin investigation has been very successful. It tracked the local heroin trade through Columbus, Ohio, and to Mexico. What impressed you?
A: I've never seen an investigation have the community impact that did. You really could just easily measure the success of the investigation simply by the reduction in overdoses and reduction in heroin arrests. Everything really dropped off dramatically.
We can't be successful with anything we do here unless we have a team approach. That case in particular, everyone checked their egos at the door. It was a true multiple agency approach. It was complete harmony with us, the FBI Task Force, DEA, (West Virginia) State Police and the Ohio authorities. Everyone just had one common goal. That was to identify the source and arrest as many as people who were responsible.
Q: Court documents name Jose Hernandez Salazar as the alleged kingpin. He remains at large. What effect will his arrest have?
A: ... as long as he is still at large I think you're safe to assume he is probably still in the drug trafficking business. Although he may not be poisoning our community, I'm sure he is victimizing someone else's community.
Any time you have people that operate in his capacity that are at large, it's important for us to make that apprehension because it sends a message that we're going to keep coming after you. You just don't want to forget about somebody like that because it creates that atmosphere that you can get away with it.
Q: Where are your potential trouble spots in the city?
A: Fairfield East and West, along with West Huntington between 9th Street West and 14th Street West near Jefferson, Jackson and Monroe avenues.
(West Huntington) is an area that we know we've displaced some of our problems.
Q: Is there a plan in place to position a police precinct in Fairfield West?
A: Yes. We do have plans to do that. We're hoping it will establish a consistent police presence that will further help us connect with the community.
Q: Do you believe prostitution and repeat prostitution remain a problem?
A: Our job is to identify somebody committing a crime and make an arrest. There are a lot of factors that go into how it is ultimately adjudicated. That is oftentimes out of my food chain.
I absolutely (feel we've reduced the street presence). I think the emphasis we put on prostitution is critical to our overall drug reduction effort because they are such a vital part of the drug trade.
Q: You've been a constant voice for reducing crime on 4th Avenue. Where does progress stand?
A: The (shooting death of Donte Newsome) was kind of an unfortunate exclamation mark to the problem we have.
I think the more vibrant it becomes, the less crime problem we will have.
You are going to have bars, but a lot of it just comes down to personal responsibility of the bar owners and managers -- how they're going to control things.
I've suggested to stagger the times for closing, but until they want to accept some responsibility, I think we are going to continue to have some problems. I'm not trying to say they're all like that, but some of the bar owners are extremely responsible.
Q: Do you believe armed robberies are becoming an increasing problem for the city?
A: Any time we experience legitimate armed robberies, they are a concern. A lot of it is driven by the drug trade. I don't think we're experiencing anything out of the ordinary. Most of our robberies are actually unarmed robberies.
Q-&-A with the police chief
This is the second of a three-part series reporting on a lengthy interview with Huntington Police Chief Skip Holbrook.
Wednesday: Violent crimes and safety issues.
Today: Drug trafficking, other crime hot spots.
Friday: The police department's needs and wants.
