S.I. to probe all fatal ODs

CONFOUNDED and alarmed by a surge in fatal drug overdoses — particularly heroin deaths — Staten Island cops and prosecutors are turning to a new strategy to trace the trail of lethal narcotics.

The borough will be the first in the city to investigate every case just as it would probe a homicide — from dusting for prints to collecting cell phone data, officials said Wednesday.

The new approach — slated to begin Tuesday — transforms an old blueprint where OD deaths were treated more as family tragedies than crimes. A report would be filed, but except in rare cases, the deaths wouldn’t spark a fullscale investigation, officials said.

“What spurred this is the number of cases and the dramatic increase in overdose deaths,” said Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon. “We really are a community in crisis.”

Over the past year, he said, a drug OD death in the borough occurred once every three days.

In 2014 — the last full year that has been recorded — 41 people suffered heroin overdoses on Staten Island, compared with 23 in 2011 — a 78% jump.

Citywide in 2014, 458 people died from heroin overdoses, a 61% spike from 284 in 2011.

Put another way, heroin-related deaths now dwarf homicides. In 2014, 333 people were murdered in the city. And Commissioner Bill Bratton says heroin deaths have outpaced murders in New York for the past three years.

With the new investigative approach, police will try to get permission from the victim’s family to search cell phones, hoping the trail will lead them to dealers.

McMahon said the new strategy was partly inspired by the heroin overdose death of Johnathan Crupi, 21, in March 2014. Using a text message from Crupi’s phone, police tracked down 14 people on drug sale and conspiracy charges.

“I think there’s going to be a wealth of evidence that we uncover,” McMahon said. “We’ve certainly seen that there are a lot of connections between these deaths, and it seems like there are some common people involved. We want to get them.”

Cheap heroin flooding in from Mexico is one factor in the rash of overdoses, Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said.

“Look at all the effort we put into homicide investigations, and drug overdoses are a significant public safety issue,” she said “It’s time to think more expansively about what resources we can bring to bear to address the issue.”