Pressure mounts on
first responders
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Firefighters have worked structure and brush fires in 2017 including one that lasted two weeks in the east end of North Port.
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The North Port Police Department arrested 26-yr-old Marquis Choppa Harris in connection of the murder of 22-yr-old Jaqavies Rivers in the Jockey Club in North Port in late September.
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Members of the Punta Gorda Police Department invest in youth by coaching basketball teams, Student athletes earn trophies paid for by sponsors of the Punta Gorda Police Jammers.
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Law enforcement and other first responders in Charlotte County worked together through Hurricane Irma in September.
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Thousands of vehicle crashes have been worked this year by first responders in Charlotte and Sarasota counties.
SUN PHOTO BY ELAINE ALLEN-EMRICH
Gov. Rick Scott came to Sarasota to sign a new billinto law to help law enforcement officers charge drug dealers with murder if their drugs are laced with fentanyl. Sarasota County Sheriff's Office has already used the law twice to charge dealers sold drugs to two people who overdosed on them.
It’s a tough job, and lately it has to be done more often.
In 2017, police officers, deputies, firefighters and emergency technicians and paramedics — known collectively as first responders — battled 100-foot flames, pried smashed vehicles apart, arrested drug dealers on manslaughter charges, solved homicides, and saved the lives of people who had overdosed on opiates.
