Residents requested help from Portsmouth Police Officers to break up a large homeless camp near Gallia and Buch Street.
Callers said people had tents, drug paraphernalia, and other items strewn all over the hillside. Dispatch sent Portsmouth Code Enforcement to the scene to investigate.
At 2 pm, officers responded to AT&T Wireless on Gallia after witnesses said they feared a man had overdosed at a table outside. When officers and EMS arrived on the scene, they learned the man was just sleeping.
Half an hour later, SOMC Security reported an apparently high man kicking a bench. Officers spoke to the man, whom they said was not intoxicated enough to be a danger to himself. He refused medical treatment, so they told him to leave the hospital property.
Around 4:30 pm, a caller reported a man rocking back and forth on the stoop of the Scioto County Cancer Center. When officers spoke to the man, he admitted he’d used drugs recently and had some mental health issues.
The man agreed to leave with a member of the crisis response team for drug treatment.
