Crime & Safety

Police Chief: Traffic Safety, Drug and Alcohol Abuse are Foxborough's Biggest Issues

Foxborough Police Chief Edward O'Leary said his department is focused on addressing three main issues in town: traffic safety, prescription medication and youth alcohol abuse.

Foxborough Police Chief Edward O’Leary said the three main issues his is focused on addressing in town are prescription medication and alcohol abuse and traffic safety.

O’Leary said traffic safety “is one of the big issues” in the Foxborough community because the town has over 100 miles of roadways and many of them have crashes.

“We try to target our enforcement initiatives on roads that have traffic crashes to reduce the impact they have on the community,” O’Leary said. “We also try to respond to neighborhood concerns about speeding cars on their roadways with targeted enforcement.”

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Back in April, O’Leary said his in an effort to address traffic safety in Foxborough, targeting the streets where there is a high level of accidents.

The chief added there is no specific spot in town that is of higher concern for speeding and that complaints are typically scattered throughout town.

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“It varies from small neighborhoods to places like South High Street,” O’Leary said.

Recently, the Foxborough Board of Selectmen voted to reduce the speed limit on Payson Road from 35 mph to 25 mph, according to an article in The Sun Chronicle. However, in a , 33 percent of 39 voters said the town does not have a speeding problem.

O’Leary said while speeding is not the only issue on the town’s roadways, it needs to be addressed in terms of traffic safety.

“[We do traffic enforcement] to try to slow people down because that is one of the [issues],” he said.

Addressing Prescription Drug Abuse in Foxborough

O’Leary said another “big issue” that has been around in town for a couple of years but is starting to “intensify” is the abuse of prescription medication.

“More and more people are transitioning – because they cannot afford the Oxycontin and Oxycodone because the street value is so high; we’ve seen a transition people make to heroin because it is so cheap out of Providence, Boston or Worcester,” O’Leary said. “Those drug addiction issues create a hazard both to the user of the drug as well as for other people because they have to steal to generate their income.”

To address this issue of getting prescription drugs off the streets, O’Leary said Foxborough has participated in the , which aims to "take back" old or unused prescription drugs, which in return helps to protect our environment and misuse of these drugs by others.

“I see that on Sept. 29 the DEA is again going to be sponsoring one of those take backs so we again will be participating with that here in Foxborough,” O’Leary said. “I think we had 45 people bring in old or unused prescription medication. That takes away the risk of it being abused by others or sold on the street as well as protecting the environment to prevent people from flushing it down the septic system to poison people.”

Furthermore, O’Leary said Foxborough received a grant from Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey to bring a drug take-back container to the lobby of the , giving residents year-round access to properly dispose of their unused or old prescription medications.

“We just sent out the paperwork for one of those [drug take-back containers],” O’Leary said. “That will be in the lobby hopefully by the first of October so that we can start using that.”

In May 2011, Morrissey wrote to Norfolk County police chiefs inviting them to host a drug collection container. Morrissey negotiated an arrangement with Bay State Community Services’ Impact Quincy program to provide a two-thirds subsidy for police to acquire the $900 secure containers. Morrissey awarded 13 towns a $300 grant from the DA’s office, drawn from drug profits confiscated in narcotics prosecutions, coupled with a $300 grant from anti-drug funds that Impact Quincy had through the Department of Public Health. Morrissey, like O’Leary, sees an issue with prescription medication abuse across Norfolk County.

“Prescription drugs, particularly opiate-based pain pills left over from surgery, injury, even dental work, may look harmless sitting in the medicine chest, but we are finding that the opposite is true,” said Morrissey. “We are hearing from addiction experts that over half, and perhaps three quarters, of young people are having their first experiences with addictive opiates that were taken directly from the medicine cabinets of family or friends.”

Addressing Alcohol Abuse Amongst Foxborough’s Youth

The third issue O’Leary said his department is focused on addressing is youth alcohol abuse.

“I’m very concerned about youth alcohol abuse,” the chief said. “Not just in the fact that people get injured, have alcohol poisoning or have been killed in traffic accidents but I see it also in terms of wasted lives as their abuse of alcohol at a very early age leads to them making a series of poor decision making that limits the future many of them have.”

O’Leary, who has been the Police Chief in Foxborough for 26 years, shared a story from his days as a patrolman to illustrate how youth alcohol abuse can limit an individual’s life.

“A young guy [at the time] got into an accident up on Route 1 – I was a patrolman at the time – and he was only 21 or 22 at the time and he ended up being arrested for assault because after the accident he jumped out of the car and started whaling on somebody,” O’Leary said. “I happened to be in the area and saw the accident and arrested him for OUI and assault and battery and after that there was a continuing spiral of poor decisions, most of which were driven by alcohol.

“He’s not a bad person, but once he got into that slump, he couldn’t get out. That was the lost opportunity that I’ve seen people have happen. They have great potential but poured it away.”

O’Leary said the man in the story was recently arrested again for undisclosed reasons.

O’Leary added it’s important for the community to be proactive, involved and committed in addressing this issue of youth alcohol abuse.

“One of the groups that was very active and is sort of on hiatus is SAFE Foxborough,” O’Leary said. “That was a community initiative and a partnership with the town of Stoughton. For a year-and-a-half they provided us some financial support from a mentoring grant that got all the elements of the community together to work on various strategic initiatives. A couple of them we have put in place.”

Another step taken in addressing this issue has been the town’s mandate that requires any business with a liquor license to have all of its servers trained in responsible beverage service, according to O’Leary.

“That was one of the initiatives that was championed by the SAFE Foxborough group,” O’Leary said.

Furthermore, O’Leary said students have gotten involved to address the issue with classmates.

“Both the SADD students, the honor society people and many of the sports captains participate in many of the drug and alcohol prevention activities,” O’Leary said.

So Foxborough, we want to know – What do you think is the biggest issue the town’s police department is currently facing? Vote in the poll below and add to your response through our comment section below.


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