The City of Dallas has joined a project that maps drug overdoses in an effort to respond to the ever-worsening opioid crisis.
Dallas officially joined the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (ODMAP) on Thursday, as reported by NBC 5.
North Texas has been classified as a “High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area” (HIDTA). The HIDTA program is aimed at addressing regional drug threats and reducing drug trafficking.
First developed in the Washington/Baltimore HIDTA, ODMAP “provides near real-time suspected overdose data across jurisdictions to support public safety and public health efforts to mobilize an immediate response to a sudden increase, or spike, in overdose events.”
The information shared with ODMAP is only released to authorized personnel and does not include names or personal information. It is meant to include the date, time, and location an overdose occurred, whether it was fatal, and whether an opioid antagonist was administered.
“For six years I, alongside former United States Attorney in the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox and Texoma High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Director Lance Sumpter, have been working toward bringing ODMAP online across all of Dallas County,” Dallas County District Attorney Creuzot said in a statement, per CBS News.
“This is far from mission accomplished in the fight against the fentanyl crisis, but I am relieved to finally have this powerful tool in our arsenal.”
The DA’s office told NBC 5 that Dallas Fire-Rescue is now sharing overdose data on a daily basis.
“I know lives will be saved,” Creuzot told NBC 5. “If we can understand the patterns, we can intervene and stop more things.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Creuzot has been criticized for policy choices perceived as endangering lives rather than protecting them, such as not prosecuting thefts under $750. He later reversed that policy after it was scrutinized for potentially encouraging crime.
Dallas joins ODMAP following the passage of Texas Senate Bill 1319, which requires that emergency medical services personnel who respond “to an overdose incident shall report information about the incident as soon as possible to the local health authority or law enforcement agency.”
The bill further declares that people who report information about an overdose incident are “not subject to civil or criminal liability for making the report” and states law enforcement agencies may only use this information “for mapping overdose locations for public safety purposes.”
Some North Texas cities like Irving were already voluntarily participating in ODMAP before SB 1319’s passage. NBC DFW reported that Dallas originally held out over concerns that sharing medical information such as overdose data could violate privacy laws. After the law was worded to clarify that overdose mapping data was exempt from medical privacy laws, Dallas opted into the program.
Still, Dallas City Council Members Paula Blackmon and Adam Bazaldua supported the legislation.
“Like the rest of the nation, the opioid crisis is in Dallas,” Bazaldua said previously, per CBS News. “Allowing opioid data sharing between law enforcement, fire and EMS departments within the same city makes sense, and it is urgently needed.”
SB 1319 was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott and will take effect on September 1.
