La Grande 911 Dispatch Center Seeing Yearly Increase in Drug Overdose Calls

By Garrett Christensen on Thursday, August 17th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News

LA GRANDE – Local emergency services are tasked with responding to a near infinite number of scenarios, some intense and some mundane. Among the calls for service received by the La Grande Police Department’s 911 dispatch center each year, calls pertaining to drug overdoses have seen a notable increase since 2020 according to data provided by the LGPD.

Please note before examining the data that, according to La Grande Police Chief Gary Bell:

The data discussed only represents calls for service that came to the La Grande 911 Dispatch Center. Calls for service could have been intended for either law enforcement or EMS and are not differentiated in this instance.
The data DOES NOT include overdose events that were passed directly to the emergency department, passed to individual medical providers, or were in some way self-treated.
The data DOES NOT represent deaths, only the calls for service to the dispatch center that pertained to a drug overdose.

Examining the data provided by the LGPD, in 2020, the Dispatch Center reported 10 drug overdose calls for service. Of these, none were specifically in the jurisdiction of the LGPD/located In La Grande. In 2021, the total number increased to 45 calls, with 33 of them specifically within the LGPD’s jurisdiction. In 2022 the number of calls increased to 58, with 50 specifically within the LGPD’s jurisdiction. As of August 2, the Dispatch Center has received 28 overdose calls, with 18 specifically within the LGPD’s jurisdiction.

In terms of percentages, as calculated by the LGPD, between 2020 and 2021, the number of overdose calls increased by 350 percent. From 2021 to 2022, overdose calls increased by 29 percent. The overall increase from 2020 to 2022 was 480 percent. It, of course, remains to be seen if the total number of overdose calls for 2023 will exceed, match, or decrease compared to the previous three years.

Again, the numbers do not represent deaths, do not state which agency responded to the calls, and they do not take into consideration reports that were received via other means or by other groups. The numbers explicitly refer to overdose calls for service received by the La Grande 911 dispatch center from 2020 to August 2, 2023.