Police take on drugs at Block Watch meeting

FREMONT - The Fremont Police Department spread bags filled with seized powdered heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana and other illegal drugs across a table Monday night in the center of the Pontifex banquet room.

With crimes related to drug use on the rise in Fremont, police officials asked residents at the monthly Block Watch meeting to get a good look at those drugs and lend the department a hand in policing the city's problem houses and suspicious activity.

At Thursday's Fremont City Council meeting, interim police chief Jim White told council members that robberies, thefts and vehicle entry-related thefts were up in 2015 due to the drug epidemic in the area.

Monday, Detective Jason Kiddey of the Fremont Police Department gave a presentation to about 25 residents on illegal drugs and paraphernalia that can be found in Fremont, and how to spot and report suspicious activity.

He told residents that the department only had so many officers and asked everyone to band together as a community to combat drug activity in the city.

"You guys are very important to us," Kiddey said.

Officer Jacob Scully said the drug problems in Fremont were not confined to one particular neighborhood in the city, but were spread out all over town.

Kiddey passed some of the drugs and paraphernalia around the room to let audience members see what the materials looked like up close.

"Our biggest problem is heroin," Kiddey said, as he spoke briefly about the drugs and how they are used.

The detective said there were health risks associated with used needles left lying around on city streets. He told residents to watch for heavy foot traffic at all hours of the night at neighbor's homes and other signs of possible drug activity.

Fremont resident Aaron Rodriguez said he was attending his first Block Watch meeting.

Rodriguez said he moved to Fremont in 2006 from Holland, Mich. He had noticed the city's drug problems and related criminal activity had increased in the decade he's lived here.

"I think it's gotten worse," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez is a private music teacher at Fremont's Roi Music. He said kids in the city needed more places to go like the Boys and Girls Club and additional extracurricular activities.

"They've got to have a place to run," Rodriguez said.

The city's next Block Watch meeting is March 14 at 7 p.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

Scully said he's been doing Block Watch since October 2015, with eight people coming to that month's meeting.

dacarson@gannett.com

419-334-1046

Twitter:@DanielCarson7