Pennsylvania law enforcement use of Narcan

Jacoby, Jeanne L; Crowley, Lauren; Cannon, Robert D.; Weaver, Kira D.; Henry-Morrow, T.K.; Henry, Kathryn; Kayne, Allison N.; Urban, Colleen E.; Gyory, Robert A.; McCarthy, John F.

doi:10.1016/j.ajem.2020.01.051

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…This study sought to obtain a greater understanding of police officer's attitudes toward drug treatment and the utilization of naloxone/Narcan. Given that police officers in PA are often the first responders to an overdose call (Jacoby et al, 2020), it is important to assess their attitudes toward the use of naloxone and their role in the opioid crisis. Like previous research, we found that police have complex views of naloxone and drug treatment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, police officers complete a mandatory online training about opioids and naloxone use. This Act has led to widespread use of naloxone by law enforcement, with a recent survey of PA police reporting 91% of officers statewide having access to naloxone (Jacoby et al, 2020). That same survey also had police officers indicate that in over 73% of overdose calls, police officers were the first to respond.…”

Section: Stigma and Drug Addictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Police Officers’ Views of Naloxone and Drug Treatment: Does Greater Overdose Response Lead to More Negativity?

Murphy

Russell

2020

Journal of Drug Issues

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Police officers and emergency personnel are on the frontlines of the opioid crisis. This research examines police officer attitudes about naloxone administration, drug treatment, and their role in handling drug-related incidents through an online survey. Although officers view themselves as adequately trained in administering naloxone/Narcan, almost half (43%) believe there should be a limit on how often someone who overdoses receives Narcan and the majority (83%) view naloxone/Narcan as providing an excuse to continue drug use. Officers also view drug treatment as ineffective. Negative attitudes differed as a function of frequency of overdose responses; officers who responded to more overdose calls and administered naloxone more frequently demonstrate more pessimistic attitudes toward drug treatment and the use of naloxone/Narcan. Officers more frequently exposed to drug overdoses need education and training about drug addiction issues to decrease stigma and elicit greater empathy toward people struggling with addiction.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Stigma and Drug Addictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Police Officers’ Views of Naloxone and Drug Treatment: Does Greater Overdose Response Lead to More Negativity?

Murphy

Russell

2020

Journal of Drug Issues

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“…Currently, estimates suggest that about 2,482 law enforcement agencies have implemented some form of a naloxone program or policy (North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, 2019b), which is roughly 21% of all agencies operating in the United States ( N = 18,000; FBI, 2018). In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania—where most of the officers in this study were employed—a recent survey revealed that about 91% of officers had access to naloxone (Jacoby et al, 2020). While this estimate is much higher than the national average, there are 9% of officers in the Commonwealth who do not have access to naloxone.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

A Preliminary Assessment of Stigma in Law Enforcement Officers’ Responses to Opioid Overdoses

Kruis

Merlo

2020

Journal of Drug Issues

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Prior work has suggested that provider-based stigma of substance use disorders may be one barrier to fighting the opioid epidemic. However, to date, provider-based stigma has been afforded little attention in the context of the criminal justice system. The goal of the current study was to extend this line of research by examining the impact of provider-based stigma toward opioid using persons to beliefs about help that should be provided to persons experiencing an overdose among a sample of 208 police officers working in departments in the Northeastern Region of the United States. In addition, this study explores the relationship between provider-based stigma and the anticipated on-duty behavioral responses to opioid overdoses. Results from multivariable analyses indicate that certain dimensions of social stigma are significantly related to officers’ perceptions of help in varying directions, along with officers’ experiences with naloxone administration and departmental policy pertaining to the use of naloxone.

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“…Stigma against PWUO and PWID has also been common in press reports citing police chiefs and sheriffs for refusing to allow their officers to carry and administer naloxone [ 46 , 47 ]. A recent survey revealed that some police officers, particularly those who responded to the most OD emergencies, expressed negative attitudes about naloxone administration, drug treatment, and their role in handling drug-related OD emergencies [ 48 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the barriers described, engaging law enforcement in opioid OD prevention and response initiatives is critical to minimizing some of the secondary harms related to commonplace policing practices [ 49 - 51 ]. Although some overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) training initiatives with law enforcement have had mixed results [ 48 , 52 , 53 ], police education programs, including our own online curricula [ 54 , 55 ], have shown promise in precipitating procedural and attitudinal changes related to substance use. Previous research using the Safety and Health Integration in the Enforcement of Laws on Drugs (SHIELD) model developed by another member of our team (author LB) demonstrated that police officers are especially receptive to education on working with at-risk groups when bundled with occupational safety messages that highlight their own risk of acquiring HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and hepatitis B virus (HBV) from a needle stick and other harms [ 14 , 22 , 30 , 56 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of an Experimental Web-based Educational Module on Opioid-related Occupational Safety Among Police Officers: Protocol for a Randomized Pragmatic Trial to Minimize Barriers to Overdose Response

Simmons¹,

Elliott²,

Bennett³

et al. 2022

JMIR Res Protoc

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Background As drug-related morbidity and mortality continue to surge, police officers are on the front lines of the North American overdose (OD) crisis. Drug law enforcement shapes health risks among people who use drugs (PWUD), while also impacting the occupational health and wellness of officers. Effective interventions to align law enforcement practices with public health and occupational safety goals remain underresearched. Objective The Opioids and Police Safety Study (OPS) aims to shift police practices relating to PWUD. It adapts and evaluates the relative effectiveness of a curriculum that bundles content on public health promotion with occupational risk reduction (ORR) to supplement a web-based OD response and naloxone training platform (GetNaloxoneNow.org, or GNN). This novel approach has the potential to improve public health and occupational safety practices, including using naloxone to reverse ODs, referring PWUD to treatment and other supportive services, and avoiding syringe confiscation. Methods This longitudinal study uses a randomized pragmatic trial design. A sample of 300 active-duty police officers from select counties in Pennsylvania, Vermont, and New Hampshire with high OD fatality rates will be randomized (n=150 each) to either the experimental arm (GNN + OPS) or the control arm (GNN + COVID-19 ORR). A pre- and posttraining survey will be administered to all 300 officers, after which they will be administered quarterly surveys for 12 months. A subsample of police officers will also be qualitatively followed in a simultaneous embedded mixed-methods approach. Research ethics approval was obtained from the New York University Institutional Review Board. Results Results will provide an understanding of the experiences, knowledge, and perceptions of this sample of law enforcement personnel. Generalized linear models will be used to analyze differences in key behavioral outcomes between the participants in each of the 2 study arms and across multiple time points (anticipated minimum effect size to be detected, d=0.50). Findings will be disseminated widely, and the training products will be available nationally once the study is completed. Conclusions The OPS is the first study to longitudinally assess the impact of a web-based opioid-related ORR intervention for law enforcement in the U.S. Our randomized pragmatic clinical trial aims to remove barriers to life-saving police engagement with PWUD/people who inject drugs by focusing both on the safety of law enforcement and evidence-based and best practices for working with persons at risk of an opioid OD. Our simultaneous embedded mixed-methods approach will provide empirical evaluation of the diffusion of the naloxone-based response among law enforcement. Trial Registration ClinicalTrail.gov NCT05008523; https://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT05008523 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/33451

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Pennsylvania law enforcement use of Narcan

Cited by 8 publications

References 6 publications

Police Officers’ Views of Naloxone and Drug Treatment: Does Greater Overdose Response Lead to More Negativity?

Police Officers’ Views of Naloxone and Drug Treatment: Does Greater Overdose Response Lead to More Negativity?

A Preliminary Assessment of Stigma in Law Enforcement Officers’ Responses to Opioid Overdoses

Evaluation of an Experimental Web-based Educational Module on Opioid-related Occupational Safety Among Police Officers: Protocol for a Randomized Pragmatic Trial to Minimize Barriers to Overdose Response

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