While overdoses are a troubling problem in secluded places like bathrooms in the city, Goldman said he's been also been getting calls from residents about people overdosing outside in public places.
"We've had public-view deaths, which I know is very scary to our community," he said.
Delray Beach police have recorded at least 51 overdoses since the beginning of the year. In the same time frame last year, two overdoses were reported.
As the overdoses balloon, Delray Beach police are trying to fight back with another drug: naloxone.
At a news conference Tuesday, Delray Beach Fire Rescue EMS Division Chief Dave Wetzel explained that opioids like heroin, oxycodone, and morphine work by blocking pain receptors. Naloxone quickly turns those pain receptors back on.
"They wake up sometimes angry because we just ruined their high," Wetzel said.
The problem, Wester said, is the normalcy only lasts about 30 minutes before the person is back to feeling high. That's why he wants people to go to an emergency room rather than walk free, he said.
Wetzel said the problem isn't heroin alone, but heroin mixed with other things like fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, which is used to increase the high for the user.
"That's what's creating our epidemic," he said.
He said firefighters went on eight overdose calls. Since the start of this year, firefighters have used naloxone 77 times, he said.
Goldman said his department will become the first law enforcement agency in Palm Beach County — and the second in Florida — to use the new tool to battle a growing problem of fatal heroin overdoses. The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office is the other agency in Florida.
Legislation passed last June paved the way for law enforcement to administer naloxone. Starting March 1, police supervisors for each shift in Delray Beach will carry naloxone nasal spray, also known as it's brand name, Narcan.
Police will be using a nasal spray to administer the naloxone.
Goldman said the problem is all part of a nationwide heroin epidemic, which has hit Delray Beach especially hard.
He said other people have labeled Delray Beach the "rehab capital of the world," which has caused drug dealers to come to the city.
"These dealers are scavengers," Goldman said. "They prey on a vulnerable population ... some are here trying to get healthy."
He said some dealers offer people samples of heroin just to get people hooked.
Police are also trying to educate users by working with the Delray Beach Drug Task Force to inform people on where to go for help, and Good Samaritan laws that can protect a witness to an overdose from being arrested.
Wetzel said witnesses often delay calling for help because they either don't recognize the symptoms of an overdose or they're concerned about getting in trouble.
"Don't worry about cleaning up drugs, don't worry about setting the scene. You're protected under the good [Samaritan] law," Goldman said.
Through a grant donation, Suzanne Spencer, executive director of the task force, said Evzio, the company that makes a naloxone auto-injector, will give the fire and police departments a total of 200 kits.
"Our focus now is to provide the leadership necessary to answer the question which is, what happens after Narcan? This isn't the end of it," Spencer said.
All 32 supervisors with the police department have been trained to use the kits. For every overdose call, at least one of them will be expected to respond, Goldman said.
"We get in this profession because we're givers," Goldman said. "This is another tool for our officers to save lives."
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