Markeshia Ricks Photo
Fontana, at right, pitching feds for more money for Narcan.
The city is looking at putting the opioid antidote Narcan in the hands of cops after a string of deadly overdoses, provoking skepticism from the heads of the police and fire unions.
Police Chief Dean Esserman told the Independent earlier this week that Mayor Toni Harp has instructed him to “review the feasibility of police being trained in using Narcan,” which currently falls under the purview of the fire department alone.
A city task force is evaluating several options, including storing Narcan in patrol cars and strapping a kit to the belt of every cop in the city.
After 17 people, three of them fatally, overdosed on street-sold fentanyl on June 23, and the city almost ran out of Narcan to revive victims, public debate focused on how to make sure enough emergency responders have the antidote, which city officials credited with saving numerous lives.
One question now is: which emergency responders?
“It wouldn’t be done in place of the firefighters. It would be done in addition to the firefighters,” Esserman said. “The goal is: What’s the best way to save lives?”
The prospect of cops carrying Narcan, often administered as a nasal spray, has raised concerns over police safety and training logistics. And it has led skeptics to question the budgetary wisdom of spending tens of thousands of dollars on equipment that officers might never use at a time when other departmental needs feel more pressing.
City emergency management chief Rick Fontana, part of the city’s Narcan taskforce, said any initiative would require significant time and expense.
“The mayor has been very clear,” Fontana said. “She wants the police officers to be able to administer Narcan. Unfortunately, it’s not something that you can just say, ‘OK, let’s do it.’”
He said that one of the plans under discussion — putting kits on the belts of all 400 New Haven police officers — would cost around $40,000, even discounting the additional expense of reconfiguring police vehicles to store the antidote at the right temperature.
And, he noted, officers would need to be trained in the types of medical maneuvers that firefighters are taught to employ at the scene of an accident.
David Yaffe-Bellany Photo
Car where two overdose victims, one of whom died, were found June 23.
Frank Ricci, the president of firefighters union Local 825, said he opposes the plan to give Narcan to police officers out of concern for their safety.
“If a police officer goes into an apartment, and they’re giving Narcan, that means they have to do mouth to mouth,” Ricci said. “You have a police officer with an exposed gun at a crime scene.”
In the vast majority of cases, he said, firefighters equipped with Narcan arrive at the scene of an overdose long before their police counterparts.
Fontana said the Narcan task force has taken safety concerns into account and will likely recommend giving officers mechanical respiration equipment so that they do not have to perform mouth-to-mouth or mouth-to-mask resuscitation.
He added, however, that he could not think of a single incident in which a New Haven police officer equipped with Narcan could have prevented an overdose death. He added that he doesn’t know for sure or have data to settle the question.
“We’re making it a priority based on what [the mayor] asked us to do,” Fontana said. “Whether or not it comes to fruition, I don’t know that. There are so many other issues that have to be worked out. I don’t want to say, ‘I don’t think it’s gonna happen.’”
Mayoral spokesman Laurence Grotheer brushed aside reservations about the initiative, saying the family of a hypothetical victim saved by Narcan that a cop administered would thank the city for expanding the antidote’s availability.
“The rationale is to make this life-saving antidote more readily accessible to combat a scourge of opioid overdose,” Grotheer said. “It is the Mayor’s desire to explore all the city’s options to make Narcan available and accessible.”
Around 1,000 police departments nationwide are trained and equipped to administer Narcan.
According to Ricci, that statistic doesn’t offer the full picture. The vast majority of those cops work in rural areas with volunteer fire departments that are rarely the first responders to the scene of an overdose, he said.
Craig Miller, the president of the police union, said he has not been included in the city’s discussions, even though any adjustment to the duties expected of police officers would likely require new bargaining arrangements with the union.
“The chief of police needs to focus on getting the equipment this department needs to perform the duties we actively perform now,” he said, including providing officers with suitable cars.
“Let the FD do their job,” he said, “and let us do our job.”