Department of Epidemiology, Brown University School of Public Health, 121 South Main Street, Box G-S-121-2, Providence, RI, 02912, USA.
Project Weber/RENEW, 640 Broad St, Providence, RI, USA.
Harm Reduct J. 2022 Oct 18;19(1):116. doi: 10.1186/s12954-022-00698-2.
Narrow or non-existent Good Samaritan Law protections and harsh drug selling statutes in the USA have been shown to deter bystanders from seeking medical assistance for overdoses. Additionally, little is known about the actions that police take when responding to overdose events. The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence and correlates of naloxone administration by police, as well as to examine overdose events where arrests were made and those in which the person who overdosed was described as combative.
We analyzed incident reports of police responding to an overdose between September 1, 2019, and August 31, 2020 (i.e., 6 months prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic), from a city in Rhode Island. We examined characteristics of incidents, as well as individual characteristics of the person who overdosed. Correlates of police naloxone administration were assessed using Wilcoxon rank sum tests and Fisher's exact tests, and we examined incidents where arrests occurred and incidents in which the person who overdosed was described as combative descriptively.
Among the 211 incidents in which police responded to an overdose during the study period, we found that police administered naloxone in approximately 10% of incidents. In most incidents, police were the last group of first responders to arrive on scene (59%), and most often, naloxone was administered by others (65%). Police were significantly more likely to administer naloxone when they were the first professionals to arrive, when naloxone had not been administered by others, and when the overdose occurred in public or in a vehicle. Arrests at overdose events were rarely reported (1%), and people who overdosed were rarely (1%) documented in incident reports as being 'combative.'
Considering these findings, ideally, all jurisdictions should have sufficient first responder staffing and resources to ensure a rapid response to overdose events, with police rarely or never dispatched to respond to overdoses. However, until this ideal can be achieved, any available responders should be dispatched concurrently, with police instructed to resume patrol once other professional responders arrive on scene; additionally, warrant searches of persons on scene should be prohibited.
在美国，狭窄或不存在的“好撒玛利亚人法”保护以及严厉的毒品贩卖法规已被证明会阻止旁观者对过量用药者提供医疗援助。此外，人们对警察在应对过量用药事件时所采取的行动知之甚少。本研究的目的是评估警察实施纳洛酮治疗的普遍性和相关性，以及检查在哪些情况下警察会逮捕过量用药者，以及在哪些情况下过量用药者被描述为具有攻击性。
我们分析了 2019 年 9 月 1 日至 2020 年 8 月 31 日期间（即 COVID-19 大流行之前和期间的 6 个月），罗得岛州一个城市的警察对过量用药事件的报案记录。我们检查了事件的特征以及过量用药者的个体特征。使用 Wilcoxon 秩和检验和 Fisher 精确检验评估了警察实施纳洛酮治疗的相关性，我们还对发生逮捕的事件和过量用药者被描述为具有攻击性的事件进行了描述性分析。
在所研究期间，警察对 211 起过量用药事件做出了响应，我们发现警察在大约 10%的事件中实施了纳洛酮治疗。在大多数事件中，警察是最后一批到达现场的第一响应者（59%），而且最常由其他人（65%）实施纳洛酮治疗。当警察是第一批到达现场的专业人员、其他人没有实施纳洛酮治疗以及过量用药发生在公共场所或车辆中时，警察更有可能实施纳洛酮治疗。在过量用药事件中很少报告逮捕（1%），在事件报告中，很少（1%）将过量用药者记录为“具有攻击性”。
考虑到这些发现，理想情况下，所有司法管辖区都应配备足够的第一响应者人员和资源，以确保对过量用药事件做出快速反应，警察很少或从不被派往应对过量用药事件。然而，在这一理想情况得以实现之前，应同时派遣任何可用的响应者，指示警察在其他专业响应者到达现场后恢复巡逻；此外，应禁止对现场人员进行搜查。
