Sidney PD drug efforts

Sidney Police Department posted an application on its Facebook page March 14 inviting drug dealers to provide information on their competition, including name and address.

After one week, the post has received 93,200 views and 651 shares.

While the post was intended to be humorous, the sentiment behind it is sincere.

SPD Chief Joe Aikens said the community can volunteer information on drug abuse activity at any time.

“If they’re aware of any drug activity that’s going around, they can report it to law enforcement either through the communications center,” he said, “or if they want to share something through emails, which are available through our city webpage, just to inform us of what kind of activity is going on.”

This activity can include stop-and-go traffic, strange vehicles showing up at houses in the middle of the night, and if they’re hearing stuff from their kids.

Community involvement does make a difference, Aikens said.

“Are we expecting anybody to fill out that form? No. Is there going to be somebody who does fill out that form? Probably,” he said. “The whole idea is to get it out there, make people think about it a little bit and get them thinking about drug problems and what they might be able to do to help.”

When it comes to drugs, Sidney is like any other community, Aikens said.

“I don’t know if you can really say we have a drug problem. We have drugs just like in any other community, and any kind of drugs is a problem,” he said. “We do make several drug arrests a year in this community and any time we have to arrest people for drug violations it’s a problem.”

These drugs include marijuana, meth amphetamine, cocaine, heroin and prescription drugs.

In addition to community involvement, the SPD undertakes many efforts to enforce drug laws.

“We have an officer assigned to a narcotics task force,” Aikens said. “Our officers are very involved in drug interdiction problems. And they’re actively out looking for people using drugs.”

He added, “We teach drug education in our schools, to our kids, on how it’s a bad thing.”

Aiken said he is proud of the way the SPD has handled drug issues.

“We’re very proactive in the way we handle our drugs,” he said. “We work heavily with other agencies in curtailing drug problems around the Nebraska Panhandle.”