(The Center Square) – While overdose deaths increased by roughly 15% across Spokane County last year, data from last month already surpassed that of January 2024 and suggests it could make 2025 even more deadly.
Spokane County Medical Examiner Dr. Veena Singh told officials on Tuesday that her office recorded 30 overdose deaths last month, up roughly 15% from January 2024. She’s tallied 346 overdose deaths for 2024 so far, also up nearly 15% from 2023, but isn’t done yet.
Dr. Singh said her office is still waiting on additional testing for about 40 other deaths, so the fatal statistic may continue to rise. Regardless, overdose deaths have surged nearly 300% since 2019, alongside a 54% increase in homelessness, according to last year’s data.
“Most of the overdoses nationally and statewide and here involved illicitly manufactured fentanyl,” Dr. Singh said. “Almost all of our accidental overdose death scenes will have items like these that are associated with illicit drug use rather than prescription medication misuse.”
She said 78% of the 2024 overdose deaths involved fentanyl, though fentanyl-related deaths skyrocketed by over 19,000% from 2018 to 2023.
Despite what one might think, she said most of the overdose deaths in 2023 and into 2024 were among individuals who were employed and living in a home, motel or some other residential facility.
Still, overdose deaths remain a significant issue among the local homeless population, which Spokane’s first responders frequently receive calls of service for.
While the areas outside the Interstate 90 corridor also recorded overdoses, more than half of 2024’s deaths occurred in five ZIP codes. The fatalities stretch from 99201, which saw 64 and encompasses much of downtown, into 99205 and 99207, which covers a lot of North Spokane and saw 63 combined. The other two ZIP codes, 99202 and 99212, which cover East Spokane and the location of the former Trent Shelter, saw 54 deaths.
“In the month of January, we had 85 arrests for unlawful camping citations. This is primarily, before you ask, due to viaducts,” Police Chief Kevin Hall said Monday. “Pedestrian interference, 117 citations.”
Hall presented the Spokane Police Department’s monthly data to the city council on Monday. According to the last 12 months, January had the second-most citations for unlawful camping. The 85 tickets officers issued last month are just below the 87 handed out in October 2024.
According to his data, officers issued an average of almost 28 citations for unlawful camping each month last year, meaning January 2025 exceeded that by 107%. Officers issued an average of nearly 72 pedestrian interference citations each month last year.
January 2025 saw officers issue 62.5% more pedestrian interference citations than the monthly average for 2024; however, last May, June, July, August and October all recorded higher-than-average citations for that crime. Coincidentally, Spokane hosted its major Expo 74 event, Hoopfest and Bloomsday, between May 4 and July 4, with music and comedy festivals in August and more leading into the fall.
“So you can see there is enforcement,” Hall said. “It’s just not always the enforcement that people visualize as going to jail, being booked in jail and staying in jail. This is within the parameters of the statutes that we work with.”
With last month’s overdose deaths already over January 2024 and enforcement ticking up, officials are watching closely to see what the rest of the year may bring.