Huntington, WV public safety resources are so drained from chronic responses to overdose calls requiring Narcan that both chiefs heading the city police and fire departments have stalled responses involving overdose call-outs. But how does any public safety entity know the severity of the affected person unless first responders are on scene?
If first responders were that clairvoyant then we would neither have crime or sick folks, right? Generally, someone places that 9-1-1 call from wherever the patient may be, and most often that caller is not necessarily suited to handle the emergency. Like any jurisdiction, the city of Huntington has a valid concern regarding resource deficits; we’ll delve into that shortly. However, one may opine that the larger looming issue—lawsuits stemming from statutes such as failure to render aid—will bite them in the butt, bigly.
It will take only one instance whereby someone overdosing on opioids perishes without immediate help from a trained and Narcan-equipped city police officer or paramedic. Huntington fire chief Jan Rader underscored the propensity for overdose patients going into cardiac arrest which accounts for “the majority of overdose calls” in their city.
It is telling when a public safety figurehead says Hey, we don’t have the resources to get to you. But it is even more telling when that same leader follows with If we see that this policy change isn’t working out we’ll step up our game and respond.
In short, it will take that first lawsuit stemming from that one preventable overdose death to resuscitate Huntington police/fire personnel responses. It will also engender the city’s attorney as well as charge its insurance policies stemming from dereliction and negligence claims.
The entire purpose of Narcan was to rapidly respond to calls regarding overdose patients. Who is positioned to arrive immediately and trained to administer the life-saving Narcan solution? Police and firefighter/paramedic personnel. Paring it down further, cops have been and will always be most expedient and first on scene. Nevertheless, Huntington police and fire figureheads are deferring to their county EMS folks to pick up that ball instead.
Huntington’s philosophy of only responding to more severe cases of overdose, per EMS request leaves way too much to chance. Who gets to wage the depth of an overdose patient and how close he/she is to departing this world? Why would any public safety entity be willing to take that chance, despite resource strains? Frankly, there is no wiggle room when it comes to life-and-death pleadings, and a will-nilly policy will surely drain whatever remaining resources sitting in the bank—taxpayer dollars will be handed over to the plaintiff’s attorney while city legal representation will look back with utter regret over a seeming knee-jerk decision to abstain from responding.
A logical mind influenced by a preponderance of curiosity begs the question Why?
Huntington is located in Cabell County, West Virginia, reportedly enduring the highest overdose death rate in our country. That factor alone underscores why it would seem imminently necessary to at least seek additional/adequate funding for public safety responses.
Per Fox News affiliate WVNSTV.com, the downgrade in police/fire response to “routine overdose calls” has been in effect for roughly three months already. In essence, Huntington police officers only respond when requested by the “emergency medical services,” according to Bryan Chambers, Huntington’s communications director. Besides Huntington having its own fire department, Cabell County EMS provides advance life support (ALS) response, so that is what Mr. Chambers means by saying his city’s first responders will not go out on overdose calls unless EMS asks for their assistance.
Since the policy change, things have gone without a hitch, Chambers explained to media personnel. Is that to imply no one died yet? It is a good thing that Huntington officials have agreed to evaluate the policy stipulation on a monthly basis. But the fact remains: sometimes rinse and repeat doesn’t get things as sanitized as one would like. Bad things follow. Biding time while lives are at stake is always poor policy.
Logistics
In any jurisdiction, police officers and expedient police cruisers outnumber fire/rescue personnel and their boxy, weighted-down rigs. Logistically speaking, cops can get to any call faster. When equipped with Narcan, an overdose immediately has that fighting chance for which the drug is designed to facilitate.
Indeed, cop cars are not necessarily fashioned to board and transport an overdose patient, but the gist is to bring a drug addict away from the fatal brink. Transportation to a hospital, if deemed necessary, can be achieved by an ambulance. In that context, it would seem illogical to stand-down the police and have them merely…wait to be called when lives are dangling by threads. All public safety entities—police, fire, EMS—are in the life-preserving business. No science there, at all.
Indeed, so-called “frequent flyers” cops confront on the daily are a pain in the ass and do nothing to retain resources, but to refuse to respond is tantamount to dereliction off duty, at the very least.
Prior to February of this year, Huntington PD laid-off several of its cops. On February 1, 2018 it announced a budget healthy enough to hire eight new police officers, so the ranks may be more robust now. Huntington PD’s recruitment campaign is titled “Be Someone’s Hero” which, in empirical consideration, includes opioid addicts.
Nonetheless, not responding due to staffing shortages is often allayed by mutual aid agreements whereby smaller agencies beckon larger ones to handle some of their calls.
But, based on statements made by Huntington police Chief Hank Dial, it appears not that resources are lacking but that reallocations are the root of the policy change: “We will still respond if they need police assistance, but we’ve stopped going to simple overdose calls, where someone just needs Narcan… At one point, we were sending an ambulance, fire truck and police car to administer Narcan. That’s not an efficient use of resources.” I agree: a fire truck is not necessary. Given the potential of hostilities in drug-ridden areas of any community, police response seems a no-brainer while paramedics transporting patients is also endemic.
City Governance and the Cost of Opioid Overdoses
What are the odds that a cost calculator for governments to tabulate the toll of opioid overdoses exists? Ironically, as I write this material, such a thing slid into my email account!
According to a report released by GOVERNING Daily, “How to Calculate What Drug Overdoses Cost Government” explains exactly that which concerns leadership operating Huntington, WV and other sovereign locales across the United States. Scarcity of funding and thus personnel resources are nothing new. Neither is applying for federal, state, local and private grants to offset shortfalls and operate efficiently.
A research study undertaken by OpenGov established a baseline for municipalities and counties to go by. In a nutshell, “For every three fatal overdoses, a local government’s public safety costs can increase by an average of one percent, or $150,000” and “once deaths start spiking, government costs tend to steadily increase at that rate for about three years until they begin to plateau.”
All due respect to our public safety brothers/sisters employed by the city of Huntington, WV…I’d be concerned with the words “fatal overdoses” and “spiking.” Do what you must do with whatever means you have…while also seeking out remedies (grants).
Paring it all down, the cost of police/fire personnel and life-saving Narcan supplies is secondary to lives lost due to inaction based on depleted resources. The federal government’s grants is an option to replenish resources. State grants is another. I get that saving people from themselves (opioid addiction) is a chronic drain on first responders armed with Narcan and tax dollars affording it all…but the alternative is to chance loss of life, and crossing fingers is not even close to Merlin magic.
Overdose Response Outlook
It would seem OpenGov’s research study is knocking on the doors of Huntington police and fire departments.
OpenGov’s research into government cost constructs are such that the means justify the ends, providing public safety directors some focus, guidance and hope. OpenGov’s communications director, Joseph Roualdes outlined it this way: “During the first year or so, you’re hiring people to respond and you’re building more programs to get ahead of deaths and start to reduce them. Year three is when you see those programs start taking effect and the expenses plateau.”
With that sort of blueprint, one may be hard-pressed to take the hands-off, let’s-wait-and-see approach. As we have already mentioned, Huntington PD is beefing-up its ranks, so there is hope in assets to do the job for which they are trained.
