A new state report released by the Medical Examiners Commission reveals Palm Beach County leads the state in fentanyl related deaths.
The deadly overdoses are causing police department across the county to evolve and embrace new roles to combat the heroin epidemic.
In Delray Beach, training for officers goes beyond the gun on their belts.
"Now they're learning about getting their gloves on, getting their spit mask on, learning how to deploy narcan," said Chief Jeff Goldman, Delray Beach police chief.
It's all because of the deadly synthetic opioid that has become a common ingredient in today's heroin.
"Before we used to do field testing out in the field. They would test to make sure if it was narcotics to make the arrest. We don't do that anymore. We bring them back to the building, here we have a way to do it. There's a secured area," added Chief Goldman.
A state-wide medical examiners report reveals 163 people died from fentanyl in Palm Beach County in the first half of 2016. More than any other district, including Jacksonville which had 118 deaths, and Fort Lauderdale which had 92, Miami had 83.
Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein believes the sheer number of sober home and treatment facilities in the county may be the cause.
"The concentrations are high, but it also makes for an easy target for heroin dealers," said Mayor Glickstein.
For a while, Delray Beach has been known as the 'recovery capital.' Chief Goldman said because of that, it's also made the city step up to combat the problem.
"Our idea is to break the cycle with introducing a social worker who is tied to the police department," said Goldman.
Chief Goldman said the increase in sober homes being shut down for operating illegally has created a new homeless population in Delray.
"Now these young individuals are walking on our streets because there's nowhere to go," he added.
Delray Beach Police are taking on new roles to help place repeat overdose patients into treatment. The city hopes the Governor's Declaration of a Public Health Emergency will help fund narcan and ongoing efforts to prevent those deadly overdoses caused by fentanyl.
"It's huge because up to now we've been on our own. The burden has been on our taxpayers," added Mayor Glickstein.
It is still not clear how the public health emergency funds will be distributed or what the criteria will be to obtain the funds.
