Petersburg police collect over 11,000 pills in less than a year

The drug take-back bin is in the lobby of the newly remodeled police station. (Photo by Joe Viechnicki/KFSK)
The drug take-back bin is in the lobby of the newly remodeled police station. (Photo by Joe Viechnicki/KFSK)

Petersburg Police Department has gathered over 11,000 unused prescription medication and other pills since it opened up a collection box in the new police station lobby in late February.

The department released the 2017 statistics this week.

The drug take back bin was opened Feb. 22 in the community of more 3,000 people. As of mid-December the pills collected was 11,550. Residents have also turned in 13 Epi Pens, 70 ounces of drug liquids, 26 grams of creams and 162 inhalant doses.

Police Chief Kelly Swihart was surprised by that level of use.

“Just an incredible amount of unused medications that were turned in and I really wanted to give a shout out to our evidence technician Barb Beasley and Becky Turland from (Petersburg) Mental Health who are collecting those stats and disposing of the unneeded medications for us,” Swihart said.

He noted some of the busier months for the collection box were later in 2017, so use by the public may be increasing.

As for other statistics, the department received a total of 3,833 calls last year, 497 of which were 911 calls.

Borough police keep track of calls with a software system from a Utah company called Spillman Technologies.

Swihart thinks crime statistics last year kept pace with those from prior years.

“This is the first full year that we’ve had Spillman as a record management system,” he said. “We implemented it back in mid-2016 so we’ve refined the way we collect statistics a little bit but I think we’re tracking pretty much with what we have done in the past.”

There were over 3,500 calls that were for the police, with 81 fire calls and 215 for emergency medical responders.

The police say more than 3,400 of the calls are closed cases. The department had 95 drug-related cases last year and had 75 jail bookings. Twenty-eight of the calls were determined to be unfounded. Borough police had 35 calls from outside of the old city limits.

KFSK - Petersburg

KFSK is our partner station in Petersburg. KTOO collaborates with partners across the state to cover important news and to share stories with our audiences.

Sign up for The Signal

Top Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every week

Site notifications
Update notification options
Subscribe to notifications