The FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force will be working alongside the Saratoga Springs Police Department to curb drug trafficking and overdoses.
On July 29th, Saratoga Springs Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll announced a law enforcement effort partnering with the FBI, but few details were released.
On Thursday, reporters were invited to the FBI’s Albany office to hear more about the Spa City’s battle against fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid.
Coll says the statistics are grim.
“In 2022 we had two potential fentanyl overdoses. In 2023 that number increased to eight. In 2024 already we have eight and we had two fatalities,” said Coll.
The first-term commissioner says conversations surrounding the partnership came about after an individual in possession of a firearm and fentanyl was arrested in March in a city garage. Several weeks ago, Coll says, another fatal overdose in the same garage cemented the need for the effort.
Coll points out city police have already been working with federal law enforcement for years.
“And even recently, we had a computer network disruption, so the other squads came up to Saratoga to help us all. I do want to say that we appreciate the FBI’s relationship for certain. And, also, just to elaborate, we are an end user part of the chain for drug trafficking. So, that’s really what we want to do, we want to stop people from getting poisoned and try to prevent people from dying in our community,” said Coll.
The FBI has roughly 170 task forces around the country and, according to Albany’s Assistant Special Agent in Charge Don Zumpano, this local partnership is a “force multiplier.”
“It’s these agencies being able to have access to everything that we have access to, right? When we collaborate and work together and share information and the more we work together and the more resources we bring to bear on any issue, the better we are. And we see that in this area all the time on major investigations,” said Zumpano.
Zumpano says the success of the Safe Streets Task Force relies on local partnership, and Saratoga Springs police will benefit from the additional resources.
“Whether it’s victim services, whether it’s analytical support, whether it’s cellular analysis. Anything that the bureau brings to bear, that’s why those relationships are formalized, right? If we tried to go at that ourselves in each and every one of these communities, as I said before, it doesn’t work, we don’t have the manpower for that. So, it’s important if cities, counties, the state, even other federal agencies that are a part of this task force, it’s important for the information sharing, I think, for the larger picture of the investigation,” said Zumbano.
Zumpano says the task force and the city have been working on an as-needed basis for some time.
According to the Saratoga County Substance Use Surveillance Dashboard, there have been 530 overdoses this year. Thirty were fatal, well ahead of last year’s pace, when 39 people died of overdoses.
Coll says in addition to continuing the partnership with the FBI’s task force, the city is also moving to embed a social worker within the police department to improve street outreach.
Coll is a retired FBI agent.