Schumer backs devices that help police ID drugs

The senator was in the region Tuesday to promote the ‘Providing Officers with Electronic Resources Act,’ or POWER.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer was in the Mid-Hudson Valley on Tuesday to promote the Senate’s bipartisan “Providing Officers with Electronic Resources Act,” or POWER, to help law enforcement secure high-tech portable screening devices to quickly identify dangerous drugs like fentanyl.

The New York Democrat spoke about the POWER Act in both Poughkeepsie and Goshen.

The devices range in cost from $30,000 to $80,000 per unit, which makes them cost-prohibitive for many police agencies.

Poughkeepsie Mayor Robert Rolison, a Republican, said he supports the effort to provide law enforcement with “the funding and resources necessary to protect the public.”

Schumer said it is “no secret that the opioid epidemic has ravaged communities.” And as opioid-related deaths continue to rise, he said, it is “clearer than ever that the opioid epidemic not only rips families apart, it also puts our law-enforcement officials at risk by exposing them to illegal and fatal substances .... ”

Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, who was with Schumer in Poughkeepsie, said, “We are confronting the public health crisis of our lifetime, and Dutchess County is not alone.”