Milwaukee Creates Police Intelligence Unit to Fight Opioid Crisis

With opioid-related deaths rising in the city, the Milwaukee Police Department is creating a new task force to investigate fatal overdoses, Chief Edward Flynn announced Thursday.

"We want to be able to move even more rapidly than we have so far in following up with leads associated with drug overdoses," Flynn said.

The department is moving six members of the intelligence unit to narcotics, meaning 16 investigators will be focusing exclusively on these overdoses, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.

The task force will provide a quicker turnaround of intelligence, identify patterns and geographic spikes where deaths are occurring and rapidly respond to deadly batches of fentanyl-laced heroin, he said.

"We're looking to prosecute dealers, not users," Flynn said.