Plans to create a task force to tackle a growing heroin “epidemic” were set into motion this semester by city and county officials.

The nonprofit organization Safe Communities and the Public Health Department worked together to create the Opiates Task Force, which will focus on reducing access to and demand for opiates such as heroin.

According to Mayor Paul Soglin, burglaries and armed robberies related to the use of heroin have increased recently, and Dane County proposed the creation of the force in response to these incidents.

Madison Police Department spokesperson Joel DeSpain described the heroin-related issues as an epidemic in the city.

“We do have a number of people dying from heroin,” DeSpain said.

Lt. Brian Ackeret, a member of the Dane County Drug Task Force, said in the past three years law enforcement has seen an increase in heroin use, distribution and related overdoses. According to Ackeret, 132 overdoses related to heroin occurred in 2011. Twenty overdoses resulted in the death of the user.

Ackeret said the current Dane County Drug Task Force focuses primarily on drug distribution. The force also follows up on drug overdoses and the resulting deaths in an attempt to identify what individuals were involved in the distribution and hold those people accountable.

According to a joint statement by Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and Soglin, city-county budgets would potentially invest $78,276 in the Opiates Task Force, which is still in its planning stages.

Soglin said the task force will work to reduce access to illegal and prescription drugs and prevent abuse of prescription drugs through monitoring, among other plans.

“We need to recognize that [substance abuse] may occur in anybody’s home, anybody’s workplace – it may start not with illegal drugs, but with legal prescription medication,” Soglin said. “We are going to get control, and we are going to have a profound impact in making a safer community for everyone.”

A statement by the city said the misuse of prescription painkillers is an even bigger problem than heroin. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 14,000 people die from prescription drug overdose every year, outweighing deaths by heroin and cocaine overdoses combined.