Island registers on county drug map

Heroin arrests posted online by Suffolk County only recently
included data from the East End. Details of the arrests are
provided when a web user clicks on the precinct.

East End heroin arrests are starting to pop up on Suffolk County’s drug  map, including one on Shelter Island.
The Suffolk County Drug Mapping Index, an online map launched in 2009 showing heroin arrests throughout Suffolk County, originally showed dozens of arrests in western Suffolk but none for towns and villages outside the Suffolk County Police District (SCPD). It now shows arrest data for Riverhead, western Southampton Town and Shelter Island. That local arrest, on August 11, involved an alleged prostitute charged with possession of heroin and other drugs.
A registry and map of heroin arrests was made law by Suffolk County in 2008, a public information tool to raise awareness of increased heroin use, symbolized by the death of 18-year-old Natalie Ciappa of Massapequa and referred to as “Natalie’s Law.”
Following Reporter inquiries about the lack of East End data on the Natalie’s Law map, the SCPD requested that East End towns and villages voluntarily report heroin arrests.
According to Police Chief Jim Read, the Shelter Island Police Department reports arrest data to the county on a monthly basis.
Southold and East Hampton town police were contacted to see why no arrests have been reported in their jurisdictions. Captain Martin Flatley of the Southold Police said, “We would have no reason not to” report the arrests and added that he would inquire further.
The East Hampton Police Department did not respond to requests for information on reporting heroin arrests to the county.
None of the 20 arrests resulting from an East End Drug Task Force sweep in May are posted on the map. The result of a nine-month, multi-jurisdictional investigation that involved the Shelter Island Police Department, several of the arrests and seizures of hundreds of bags of heroin occurred at houses in Calverton, Riverhead, Mattituck, Greenport and Southampton.