The Concord Police Department won a $75,000 state grant to cover nearly 1,000 overtime hours for officers cracking down on drug dealers.

Gov. Maggie Hassan announced $1.5 million in law enforcement grants Wednesday, the result of a controversial bill passed in June that expands a Manchester policing effort, known as Operation Granite Hammer, statewide.

The program seeks to cut the flow of opioids into New Hampshire by putting officers in areas with high drug trafficking, while coordinating state and local efforts. Supporters say the money will help decrease the supply of heroin and fentanyl. But critics argue that arresting people isn’t the way to solve the state’s opioid crisis.

Concord, like the rest of the state, has seen a spike in drug-related crimes and overdoses. The number of arrests in Concord involving heroin has skyrocketed in recent years – rising from 60 in 2012 to 273 in 2015, according to Concord police statistics. Similarly, arrests related to meth increased by more than 600 percent in the same time frame.

“The drug problem is driving our property and violent crime problem,” said Concord police Chief Brad Osgood, whose department employs 86 officers and includes a drug enforcement unit. “This is a great supplement to our operation.”

Beyond paying overtime hours for undercover and patrol officers, Osgood declined to say how the $74,686 grant will be used. “I don’t like to talk about tactics,” he said.

The money won’t be available for use until November, he estimates. The grant first needs a public hearing and approval from the city council.

In all, about $1.2 million in grants are divided among 10 local police departments and six county sheriff offices. The Laconia Police Department is set to receive nearly $80,000 and Franklin will get $28,800. The Manchester and Nashua police departments received the largest grants at $395,000 and $249,300, respectively.

Every local police department that applied for funding received it, Hassan said.

The roughly $232,000 in remaining funds will go to state police for overtime costs and supplies at the state forensic lab, which tests drug samples and currently faces a lengthy backlog. The money will last through June 2017, but Hassan said she expects the Legislature to include additional funding in the next state budget.

The expansion of Operation Granite Hammer barely made it through the State House this year. Unlike many other drug bills, the grant funding for law enforcement faced significant opposition in the Republican-led House. Opponents worried it would lead to the arrest of low-level users who sell drugs to feed their addiction and would better benefit from treatment.

The bill failed in the chamber initially but was revived in an extra session day called in June and passed the House, 235-74.

Hassan and state officials acknowledged Wednesday the state “can’t arrest its way” out of the opioid problem, but said cutting back on sales of illegal drugs is key.

“To beat this epidemic, it’s critical we do all we can to curb the demand for the drugs with prevention, treatment and recovery measures,” Attorney General Joe Foster said. “While we wait for demand to lessen, we must also do what we can to curb supply today.”

The grant money will be used by law enforcement to fund undercover operations, add police to areas with high volumes of drug trafficking and increase data reporting to the state. The effort will target all drug dealers, said Jon DeLena of the DEA.

“Anybody and everybody,” he said. “Anybody that is peddling in death, anybody that is selling heroin, fentanyl or opioids, we are going to target.”

Departments will have flexibility in how they use the money, but reporting data to the state on arrests and seizures is mandatory. The state can use that information to evaluate effectiveness of the program by comparing how overdose and Narcan administration rates change with the presence of increased enforcement. The first report is due before Dec. 15.

The Manchester Police Department launched Operation Granite Hammer last year. Chief Nick Willard did not return a request for comment Wednesday.

Republican legislative leaders accused Hassan on Wednesday of dragging her feet on releasing the money.

“It is unfortunate that the governor has taken over three months to announce and award these grants, which conveniently happens to be closer to Election Day,” said House Majority Leader Dick Hinch, a Merrimack Republican, in a statement.

Hassan’s spokesman, William Hinkle, responded by saying the governor proposed the bill in November and the Republican-led Legislature didn’t pass it until June.

The Department of Safety “worked in partnership with local law enforcement agencies to identify and develop effective law enforcement initiatives for the grant funding and complete the application process in less than half the same time it took the legislature to simply pass the legislation that the governor proposed last year,” he said.

(Allie Morris can be reached at 369-3307 or amorris@cmonitor.com.)