Study Debunks Myths: No Crime Rise Linked To NYC's Overdose Prevention Centers

When the first two officially sanctioned overdose prevention centers (OPCs) in the U.S. opened in New York City in late November 2021, they raised eyebrows and some ire.

Within less than three weeks after opening, they'd already averted at least 59 overdoses and were utilized more than 2,000 times, the New York City Health Department reported at the time.

Now, two years later, a study published this week in JAMA Open Network, confirms the sites continue to save lives and have not led to an increase in crime.

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OnPoint NYC, the non-profit that runs both centers — in Washington Heights and East Harlem — reported that at least 1,000 overdoses have been reversed. 

The study, co-led by Brown University public health researcher Brandon del Pozo, Ph.D., MPA, tracked reported crime and disorder complaints from January 2019 to December 2022 in the areas surrounding the OPCs and found “no significant changes were detected in violent crimes or property crimes recorded by police, 911 calls for crime or medical incidents" regarding drug use or unsanitary conditions in the vicinities of the OPCs. 

“To those who worry that opening overdose prevention centers will increase crime in neighborhoods that need these types of programs, I would say that our analysis does not bear that out,” del Pozo, an assistant professor of medicine and health services at Brown said in a press release. “Moving forward, we must continue to conduct research to see how law enforcement and public health practitioners, especially harm reduction groups, can continue to effectively collaborate on solutions to the opioid crisis in America.” 

Unique New York

New York is the only state to undertake this project, despite pressure from local legislators, beginning at the top.

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) let her feelings be known when she refused to use any of the more than $4.5 billion in legal settlements awarded by Purdue Pharma, makers of the pain pill OxyContin. Nearly every U.S. state has sued Purdue Pharma for its aggressive marketing that played down the addictiveness of OxyContin and for flooding neighborhoods with it thereby setting off an opioid addiction epidemic that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, including more than 31,700 New Yorkers.

Why Gov. Hochul? Good Question

Hochul told reporters in early November 2023 that those opioid millions should go to initiatives that will “withstand a legal challenge,” referring to a warning made by federal prosecutor Damian Williams who called the POCs "unacceptable" and that his office might soon decide to shut them down.  

Hochul, who has also not committed any state funding for the POCS, admitted she didn’t quite believe they were effective and that there were better ways to deal with the opioid crisis.

“We are engaging in harm reduction strategies,” Hochul said, referencing a public health approach that targets the adverse effects of drug use. “There’s not only one. The ones that we’re doing are proven to be successful but also legal.”

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Photo of OPC, courtesy of OnPointNYC