Mission Fire Department help map out overdose hotspots

MISSION, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The City of Mission is taking action to save more lives as City Council Members voted to join a national initiative to better identify drug overdose hotspots within the city.

The program is spearheaded by the Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking area program. It called the Mission Fire Department to see if it wanted to participate, all they needed was city approval.

In a unanimous vote, the City of Mission approved a partnership between the city’s fire department and W/B HIDTA. The program will provide the fire department with new software free of charge.

“We want to be able to identify if there is any trends that do pop up so that we can protect our community," said Michael Silva, City of Mission Interim Fire Chief.

The new technology allows the fire department to map out overdose incidents across the city and help spot geographical trends and patterns.

“As soon as our medics are responding to these calls, it will identify the areas around the city," Silva said. "It won't specifically name that residence, but it will give a geographical map area that we can pass that information to our law enforcement agencies.”

Silva says they plan to install the software by the end of the year.

Silva added the public's private information will remain safe.

“No names will be given out, no information where the address was," Silva said. "It would just have a generalized idea. So the community can rest assured that their identity will be not be given out to the public or law enforcement.”