The King County Sheriff’s Office is planning to equip all 450 of its uniformed deputies with naloxone—the heroin overdose antidote—by mid-summer, according to a department spokesperson.<\/p>\n
“She wants to get every deputy equipped with it,” said Sgt. Ryan Abbott of the recently elected King County Sheriff, Mitzi Johanknecht. “The policy for the naloxone is already completed.”<\/p>\n
“This will rollout by summer time,” he added.<\/p>\n
The final remaining roadblock is getting getting all 450 deputies trained to administer naloxone, an antidote that prevents deaths from opioid overdoses. This will consist of brief online and in-person sessions.<\/p>\n
King County Public Health will supply 250 packs of Naloxone that it has already purchased and the Sheriff’s Department will purchase another 250—for a total of 500. (Each pack contains two doses.) Naloxone doses are administered as a nasal spray to individuals experiencing an overdose.<\/p>\n
The leftover 50 doses will be distributed to the department’s drug detective units that work on the street.<\/p>\n
In early April, the Seattle Police Department announced that it will equip more of its officers<\/a> with naloxone, after first supplying it to some officers two years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n