the ribbon has been cut and it's played ball at the new multipurpose playing field at the robert taylor complex which appreciate our partners in the media and throughout the community and the sarasota police department is asking for help from the media and the public to combat a deadly drug making its way around our community so so and taking out the garbage is a chore we've all had to do but are we doing it right coming up we'll find out from the experts who see your trash every day but first we all want to live in a safe community n s a for neighborhood and one way that neighbors and law enforcement can help make that happen is with the annual national night out   in society today we truly need to see that the newtown community community and the community of sarasota is out here supporting us i mean there's a lot of handshakes a lot of hogs that are going you know that are being given the kids coming up and fist pumping  shaking our hand thanking us for their service is really cool really rewarding to see that the community is doing this you know we're out here to show our heart our partnership and our coming up and showing us respect it's really neat to see you know because they you know they smile they come up here they know where approachable all of a you know they give their hand for shaker and you know this this day and age is a face palm and i watch the kids they give you a fist pump it's really cool and it's really as a nine kids for bicycle helmets which is great if anybody needs a bicycle how much they can contact the city assaraf sort of a front that ashcroft and robin to be happy enough if they don't have transportation i'll be happy enough to you know go find them give me an address make sure that the kids are are have a helmet this is the second time that we have not being at our home our station you know we're getting into the communities i think that's absolutely awesome because you know we always invited the people down to see the police department it was there it's a newer building for us but the city it's been there for ten years you know now we're getting into the community so we're coming here where we have a good foundation and we just want to show that partnership that a community that we're here we're here for support giving away some helmets stared reaching out to artistic community as far as what they can do to help but also within the city of sarasota on the core nader for project lifesaver we have quite a few kids that are artistic that would be endangered if they would wander away from home you know the canines are awesome you know they truly are amazing animals they are you know their partners to are the canine officers to the amount their training that they have to go through to handle a dog before even the dog comes out it's just absolutely amazing and to watch them work i mean they're they're here for protection they're not vicious dogs who go out there run out and buy their dinner for safety they're there to help out the community and make it safe you know they c article searches where they can find guns or weapons or something along those lines they can find our cocks you know to get their narcotics off the street so these dogs are true work and dogs and they are absolutely amazing yeah all the teds you know  planning event this takes all year and there's a lot that goes into it because you know you're seeing option a here today because we have good weather it's not raining there's option b so you know we're here at option a right now which is great we have the community out we have you know it's we had a little break in the heat so you know i think we get a lot more people that are coming out and you know to decide that and it really it's amazing because we have so many different organizations outside the police department  we have harvest ackman tabernacle you know that's me that's taking care of all the food we have you know all the different associations here that baked goods and you know they're going to have a contest for desserts and there's some really great des out and then we have you know some of the stuff from the county get the blood blank here if you want to donate blood which again everything it's a lot of planning the feedback is great again and again you know with the environment that we're in you know nationally with you know what's going on with morons force me to see this many people out to come up interact to show that we do have had a strong partnership with our residents here in the city i think it's absolutely amazing and you know i'm honored to be a part earlier this summer city officials and community leaders broke ground on a unique and one of a kind sports field at the robert l taylor sports complex and recently we're able to cut the ribbon and invite folks to play ball  project team i would like to say thank you for allowing us to make this dream a reality for the city we worked hard to complete this project one that one month ahead of schedule on time for  outs if we're going to play it we're going to play and we're going to have multiple lines for any sport that you want to do so you can play soccer flag football football lacrosse alternate frisbee anything like that and we social field this is the only and i public turf field with these lines and players that are permanent for the community and so we can we can invite anyone to play and they can do it and we're excited to host anyone and everyone from the county and the city anywhere so this project survive the great recession where there are so many budget pressures and i think it's because we've got some very thoughtful smart leadership in this community but if that's not enough good person recreation facilities also improve k everyone likes a well groomed landscape and whether you do yourself or hire a landscape crew remember to keep your lawn and garden debris from ending up in our bay and water city ordinance prohibits blowing long cuttings in leaves into streets which ends up in storm drains and then straight into our bay there they decompose and turn into nitrogen which could lead to algae blooms and red tide in order to protect our bodies remember to blow all lawn cuttings back into your yard where it will eventually decompose into useful nutrients school and sweep it up and dispose of it properly cuttings aren't the only danger to the ba trash and other contaminants can reach the storm drains which also in danger's the bays ecosystem so go on enjoy your beautiful yard but don't blow it when it comes to our  and welcome back to city life the sarasota police department and first responders are worried about a significant increase in drug overdoses caused by a form of heroin and cocaine that is not what drug users believe they are taking and they're asking the media and the public for help this is not just a city issue this is a state of florida issue this is a regional issue and this is a national issue illicit drug use has always been a matter of choice for many and what those adult with addiction it's no longer a choice they will seek it out to their own risk and peril in our community we're finding that our street level drug dealers are not only selling these alyson are caught expert they're also cutting them with a deadly combination of drugs every day our officers and first responders are responding to individuals that believe that they are doing heroin or cocaine and then when fact they are doing that drug that has been released with the car no additives when they're putting these parfitt all in this and they're using very little of the actual heroin or the you know the actual cocaine and they are doing this drug there that you can't come back and the biggest thing that we want out of this press conference and this partnership with the media and with with the m s and with the first step and in the user what we're asking is if if you're with someone and they pass out and they overdose i don't think we're going to come in and arrest everybody in the room because that drugs there were not there is florida state statute that talks about that that subject specifically what we want to do is we want to get that drug off the street because now we know that it is laced with that type of drug with that type of fenton all karf and all or what have you so we want to get it off the off the street we don't we do not want to go and cause another victim with the same bag of drugs it is a matter of life and death you are going if you do this drug you are going to die this map to my right shows and we picked a snapshot we just chose july first to last night and if you look at this map you see that the blue pens indicate the overdoses that we've had in our city since then without quick responding even mess and first line police officers i can promise you that those blue would all be red because our e m s was able to get there and it mr administer narcan and sometimes four and five and six doses of it to get an individual bat so in two thousand and fifteen for the same period of time that they're talking about which was july first of two thousand and fifteen through september fifteenth of two thousand and fifteen e m s saw hundred in thirteen patients for a possible overdose with a hundred and eighteen doses of narcan given and by a dose we count that is two milligrams  for the same period of time this year at this point we've seen two hundred thirty two patients that's one hundred five percent increase we've given three hundred in one thousand doses of dark can which is one hundred seventy percent increase in what we've given and approximately half of those have occurred within the city limits of sars and i can tell you law enforcement in many respects are truly interventionists when it comes to what we're dealing with here we are they are saving lives as much as anybody thinks that well they're arresting people but the truth is is as was said this is not something we can rest our way out of we have to work together to address this you can sit here and i could talk to you about this in the end and that's fine but i think what's important is that we have an opportunity here from someone who has dealt with this and talked about and come out the other side and i'm very honored and humbled that john has agreed to come up now my name's john wayne thompson in two thousand and seven i overdosed three times in one week it was the first time i really realized that maybe i had a problem maybe that there was something going on a little different than i i didn't really understand you know the drugs are still all around us it's still all around our community it's still in my neighborhood and this last year i was at my parents house we live very houses they gather my sister comes running over my brother in law had o d d in the bathroom and his nine year old daughter found him when i got there is chest was blue and he wasn't very that i did c p r on until the paramedics got there and and he survived less than two weeks later he overdosed going over the bridge in palmetto and that b l truck had to stop and do c p r on him in the middle of the road they tested his bag it was ninety eight percent fit and all you know this time around for me the not scared me so much that i was able to stay away from it and stayed with the pain pills this time i'm brother in law and he's doing well because he was scared straight you know we don't have that option a lot of times it just kills us i see the paramedics almost every day in my neighborhood in the last two weeks the neighbor across the street from me dig twice and made it because of the paramedics ladies and gentlemen is the deputy chief of police i can stand up here and tell you lots of stories about everything that we see but i can't tell you a lot of stories about what individuals experience john just did that and he outlined two things that i want to touch on number one doesn't matter where you're from it doesn't matter what socio economic level that you're at this touches everybody but the second thing is it touches the whole community p j said so  chief carson said so it affects everything in this community so this is what i'm going to ask our media partners our police officers our paramedics our our our social work partners this is a all hands on deck this is not going away we have to work together to solve this issue because it's impacting people like john and if it's one john i can tell you that it's lots of people it is your neighbor it might be your pastor it might be some of that lives next door to you it might be one of your family members that's suffering silently find out talk to each other because without each other we're nothing and recently the s p d was nominated as a finalist for a prestigious award for its community policing efforts as they continue to find new ways to reach out to the community they serve and one t with the chief and we've been doing it for years and now we're doing this in participation with many law enforcement agencies across the nation it's our chance to get out with the community engage with people to build up those relationships and trust in a non confrontational friendly way so that you know we talk to people while they're drinking coffee and it's a great way to socialize and get to know our community and for them to get to know  starts normally when we're responding to people they're usually in trouble or they've been a victim of a crime or their suspect in a crime and we want to do it in a way that is friendly people are eating it's a way for us to engage and get to know people when they're not worried about something going on in their life and it's a great way of interacting having partnership policing within our community which is huge within our department huge within the city of sarasota and we just discuss issues what's important what's on their mind we've gotten so much support today so many people  complimenting our police officers i've been able to engage with people and they said oh this officer helped me in the situation and we really appreciate what you're doing we love what the sarasota police department's doing but then we also hear people that may have criticism or some constructive observations and they share that with us too and that's what this is all about is hearing from the community and aging with them building up those relationships because when you get that trust people will call us people will then know us by our first name and then they'll will be willing to understand and to learn more about our activity and now we're a finalist in that and we're very proud we're only one of nine organizations that have been recognised for our community policing efforts in our community and it's really a quite prestigious award i'll be heading to san diego soon to  i'm i'm very honored to accept it on behalf of the police department but it's because of the city and the people that live here and the police department working together that were able to get that award this is an example of one of the events that we do that it helps us engage in and stay close to our communit and don't go away we'll be back in a minute with more city life and welcome back to city life you know each week we drag our garbage cans and recycle bins down to the curb but what happens then who is that mystery man who makes it all go away and are we doing it correctly let's take a ride with one such mystery man and find out solid ways industry it's bigger than just taking garbage and throwing it into a landfill as we think about environmental factors as well as sustainability for the future we want to take these commodities and see if we can reduce the reuse them recycle them take these materials and use them in other ways and be beneficial down the road without adding waste to our land it everything every more information on recycling and trash pickup visit sarasota gov dot com on the top click on the department's tab then select and that's all the time we have for now but we thank you for watching and we'll see you next time on city