STAFF REPORT
TO: Deputy City Manager Paul Fetherston DATE: July 13, 2015
FROM: Chief Belcher?g. PREPARED BY: Lt. Gary Gudac
SUBJECT: Use of Narcan by APD
Summary Statement: Information on the current status of use of Narcan by APD

Background: The Asheville Police Department, AFD and City Doctor Martin first began
conversation on the use of Narcan in April of 2014. As we continued moving forward
with our research on the use of the product we brought in members of the Buncombe
County Sheriff?s Office, the EMS community and BCEMS Medical Director Dr. Stacie
Horine. It was determined that Dr. Hornie would have to approve law enforcements use
of the product. Buncombe County Sheriff office did not wish to move fonivard with the
project at that time however Dr. Hornie did move fonrvard with researching the use of the
product by APD and AFD. AFD was approved and their existing protocols were updated
allowing them to add it to their trucks. Dr. Hornie along with the BCEMS training director
approved and created a new training protocol for APD officers to administer the product.
Officers would be able to be trained on the product if they were CPR certified. Our
department put our program on hold to see what kind of success rate the AFD had with
their program and to access the number of officers that were currently certified in CPR.

Calls For Service: Research was conducted to determine if APD officers were arriving
on scene first or if AFD and EMS were arriving on the scene in a timely manner. From
August 1St of 2014 till February 23rd of 2015 there were 47 calls for service that were
logged by APD that dealt with a confirmed or possible Heroin overdose (Note: this does
not include medical calls that did not come to APD). Out of these 47 cases APD was the
first on scene in 14 of these cases which is less than 29% of the cases. The majority of
the cases involved APD being called to respond to assist EMS on the call and by the
time officers arrived EMS or AFD was already on scene. When a 911 medical call
comes in the dispatchers focus on getting EMS and AFD the information and to the call.
The dispatch of law enforcement occurs after EMS and AFD are already heading to the
call. In the 14 calls that APD was on scene approximately half of them were where
EMS and AFD was staged and waiting for APD to secure the scene prior to their arrival.
This drops true first on scene average down to 14%.

Current Status

Many Law Enforcement agencies across the nation, the state and Western North
Carolina are carrying the product and are having success with the program. Most of the
these agencies are rural departments that do not have a robust Fire, EMS and Rescue
system like Buncombe County and Asheville provides. Not only are the fire and first
responders quick to arrive on scene they are also equipped to handle the bio hazard
concerns that can arise when a person responds from being given Narcan.

Summary:

If APD decides to carry Narcan we would need to purchase the kits which cost
approximately twelve dollars per kit and have a one year shelf life due to the

temperature swings our patrol vehicles experience. There are some companies and
civic organizations that have offered to provide kits to APD. The training class for the
certification can be taught by AB Tech and would be a 4 hour class. Prior to sending
officers to the class we would also need to train officers in CPR and then we would need

to maintain their certifications. We currently have approximated 50 officers that are CPR
certified.

Narcan Kit Price $12 a kit
- 300 kits (training and field use) =$3,600 first year
150 (yearly replacement) +$1,800 every year after.

Training

CPR Certification 8 hours (officer hourly rate)
Annual CPR Recertificatiori 4 hours (officer hourly rate)
Narcan Certification 4 hours (officer hourly rate)