SANTA CRUZ — Tempers flared at Tuesday”s Santa Cruz City Council meeting as more than a dozen residents demanded — some yelling from the podium and the gallery — for leaders to take immediate action against discarded syringes, drug dealing and burglaries that fuel the narcotics trade.

Mayor Hilary Bryant struggled to keep order as citizens shouted at the council to block a county-monitored needle exchange program they see as enabling drug users, who then leave dirty syringes in parks, at the beach and on neighborhood streets. Some residents laughed as the county”s top health officer, Giang Nguyen, told the council about her agency”s efforts to tighten regulations for the exchange operating outside the county”s main clinic on Emeline Avenue.

“We all live here and share these concerns,” Bryant said in an attempt to calm the crowd.

The anger boiled over after City Manager Martín Bernal and Nguyen announced that the county now requires a volunteer group to exchange needles on a one-for-one basis except for certain medical reasons, such as addicts who have thin skin and need more needles.

Chris Chapman, who lives near the Emeline Avenue clinic, said he stepped on a needle near an area restaurant and has seen vehicle burglaries and other crime increase in his neighborhood.

“I”m terrified for the future of our children,” he said — his wife, Ellie later sobbing and holding a sign showing a needle enclosed in a circle with a line through it.

Nguyen reported the county has taken in more used needles in recent weeks than when the exchange operated out of a parking lot in the Lower Ocean area. The city, slammed with complaints about discarded needles, deemed it a code violation after more than 25 years in operation and asked the property owner to shut it down. In the interim, the county is now allowing the exchange to operate at Emeline Avenue three days per week.

Several residents said they support rehabilitation services for drug users and shelter for homeless people. But several urged the city to get tough on what many see as a chronic transient population dealing and using injection drugs, then stealing to support their habit.

“I”m not sure how compassionate we are expected to be at this point,” said Maggie Merrell, a Santa Cruz native.

Bernal said city staff and volunteers collected eight tons of trash during the clean up of campsites and illegal dumping from Feb. 11 to March 11, but that the number of syringes found has declined. Still, he said the city is drafting an ordinance to restrict pharmacies from selling syringes without taking in used needles and said the county is considering kiosks around the county for safe disposal.

Bernal said the city has won Coastal Commission approval to close a cave at Cowell Beach that was being used as a drug den. He said the city also is exploring with the state agency the possibility of placing a curfew on the popular surfing beach adjacent to the city”s main tourism attraction, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

To further enhance public safety, Bernal said the council will consider approving a hiring bonus for new police officers and increasing the number of community service officers. The Police Department, fresh from the killings of two detectives two weeks ago, has had a difficult time for several years fully staffing its 94 sworn positions due to turnover and lengthy hiring processes.

Bryant will accept applications through March 27 for citizens who want to serve on a new Public Safety Task Force that will study crime for six months and make recommendations to the council. To get an application, go to www.cityofsantacruz.com/safetytaskforce.

Follow Sentinel reporter J.M. Brown on Twitter at Twitter.com/jmbrownreports