Article/Criminal Justice
TOPEKA - Shawnee County Sheriff Brian Hill spoke at Annie’s Place in Topeka, Kansas for the Shawnee County Pachyderm Meeting. The meeting was held on Thursday, March 30, 2023, where the sheriff spoke on issues including the fentanyl crisis, school safety and police technology.
He started his speech by giving praise to “the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” before going into his first topic on fentanyl.
He admitted that the war on drugs hasn’t been working, saying, “wars end eventually, but I don’t see no end in sight for this.”
“This fentanyl that’s coming across our southern border—it’s become so prevalent,” Sheriff Hill stated. “Somebody was telling me that Walgreens is going to make it an over-the-counter medication—NARCAN.”
He said he will be looking into that claim, but according to Walgreens, this claim is true.
One woman said she saw a dispensary with a vending machine where you could get NARCAN, but couldn’t remember where she saw it.
“They’re putting that fentanyl in every drug they’re selling out here on the street,” Sheriff Hill said.
He also said deputies are now carrying NARCAN.
“The problem we’re having now is that fentanyl is so strong, they’re getting multiple doses of NARCAN,” Sheriff Hill said. “And once those people even come back to life, when they get them to the hospital, they usually put them on a NARCAN drip for 24 hours, because every time it goes out, they just go right back into overdose status.”
He also said hospitals used to notify sheriff’s of overdoses when he was starting out, but the issue has become so prevalent they don’t always get notifications.
He mentioned a story of a woman who lost her son after him and three friends split a pill they got off the street. After splitting the pill into four slices, her son got the slice with fentanyl in it.
“The people that are mixing this stuff up and pressing these pills out, it’s not pharmaceutical mixing going on,” Sheriff Hill stated. “It’s some ol’ boy with a mixer somewhere, and they’re pressing these pills out, so you might get a pill that’s 90 percent fentanyl and one that’s one or two percent in it.”
He talked about the southern border being an issue for the fentanyl problem and spoke on going out to the border, which he said was eye-opening.
“I stood there,” Sheriff Hill said. “There were dozens of people coming across. Pretty much border patrol was tied up just baby sitting who they did have and driving people to the facilities. The Texas Troopers and everybody with a badge up there was who was rounding people up.”
He said while he was there they talked to a rancher with several hundred-thousand acres who said every year one or two people would die crossing his property. Sheriff Hill claimed that the year he went, the number of deaths was over 100.
Sheriff Hill transitioned into speaking on the twelve homicides in Topeka since the start of the year and how there has been a little bit of gang violence associated with some of it. However, he mentioned ten people were killed in domestic homicides, bringing to light a whole other issue. To deal with this issue, the Sheriff’s department is doing what they are calling a “warrants roundup” where they go and look for people with domestic violence warrants. He also said police are doing the same thing, calling it a “compliance check”. He also admitted he is unsure of the best way to get a handle on domestic violence.
With the topic of violence and homicide, Sheriff Hill said he knows that after the last school shooting, that was probably on a lot of people’s minds. He said that after the Columbine shooting, a group was tasked with putting together a response in case of an active shooter, thinking of high school students and never fathoming anyone would go shoot elementary school students.
After Columbine they tried looking at shooter situations, trying to find common indicators that would make young people want to do something like shoot up a school. Sheriff Hill claims an interest in satanism was a common indicator that never hit the media.
Sheriff Hill said that a good way to keep kids safe is to have metal detectors and guards at the doors so no one with a gun can enter. He also said that he’s heard the argument of not wanting schools to feel like prison, to which he argued, “would you rather feel like you’re in a morgue?”
“I’ve told a lot of administrators, ‘I appreciate what you think, but if we’re going to have a tactical conversation, why don’t we get some tactical people in this room and let’s talk for real,’” Sheriff Hill said. “‘Let’s get some SWAT people in here and hear what they think. What do you need to survive that? Let’s get some people in here who really know what’s going on.’”
Sheriff Hill also said that since he’s taken over the department’s arrests and seizures are up 300 percent thanks to proactive policing and interacting with people.
“The dirty little secret in law enforcement—if I wanted to just lower your crime stats, I’d kick every narc out of my unit, I’d tell cops, ‘don’t ever hit a light because every time you do, that’s a proactive stop, that’s a crime stat I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t arrested that guy,’” Sheriff Hill said. “The only crime stats you would have would be the ones you got dispatched to and our crime rate would lower and man, wouldn’t that be good? But you know what? Kids are still dying from drug overdoses. Your lawnmower is still getting stolen. And people are still shooting and stabbing each other. So, did we make a difference? So, when I get asked what I’m going to do, I say I’m going to raise your crime stats. We’re going to lock people up.”
The audience applauded this statement.
Sheriff Hill said that as a result, crime stats in the county have gone down “almost 50 percent.” This was met with more applause. He continued by stating they are working closely with departments in surrounding counties to find stolen property and have been making a difference there.
Sheriff Hill moved into the topic of new police technology that he said he is “excited about.” The FUSE System, as Sheriff Hill described, will “monitor every keystroke so when dispatchers put any information in, the system remembers it.”
“Theoretically, when this is up and running, I have a deputy that stops a car out here and Joe Smith is in it, and the system pops up, ‘Joe Smith was wanted a year ago for an “attempt to locate” for a burglary.’ ‘Attempt to locate’ in the cop world, that’s around for about two weeks and then everybody forgets it because there’s another 20 ‘attempt to locates’. It takes someone really smart to have remembered someone from a year ago, but that computer could. Then that computer could pick up an alert that you’ve had five burglaries within a two mile radius of this car stop—here’s the case numbers.”
He also spoke on License Plate Readers (LPRs)—something that police already have with LPRs reading licensing wherever people drive. However, the video for cars is often hard to find. With the new system, finding stolen vehicles will be made easier. Due to this, Sheriff Hill said they will be dispatching police all over the city, even claiming they won’t have enough cops with all the easily accessible information.
He also talked about the use of cameras, and how they can be accessed, including school cameras, by officers, during emergencies, should they be given permission to add the cameras to the system.
After he finished speaking on his three topics, the crowd asked him questions regarding other concerns including local scams to be aware of, the Trans Day of Vengeance that is scheduled to occur on Saturday, April 1, 2023, and pornography in schools and what to do to stop it due to its legality, among other topics.