Montgomery County Police Get Training on Narcan (VIDEO)
Chief Thomas Manger at a press event to discuss how police officers are getting training on Narcan.
About 60 Montgomery County police officers took training Wednesday on how to use Narcan, a drug Chief Thomas Manger calls a “miracle antidote” for overdoses.
The training comes thanks to the Montgomery County Police Foundation, which provided $10,000 to provide the ruggedized yellow containers that contain Narcan. Manger said an officer told him the containers are so tough, a car drove over one without damaging the contents.
In this video, Manger praises the officers who volunteered for the training. The video also includes a few words from Christina Geralis, 32, of Silver Spring. Geralis suffered an overdose last March and Narcan brought her back. She’s been clean since.
Manger said that all told, 200 of the department’s 1,300 officers have been trained to administer Narcan. The police started the Narcan training three years ago with 20 officers. In those three years, police have notched 10 “saves” — that is, three times an officer has been able to bring back someone from an overdose.
Firefighters and other emergency responders have had more than 600 saves, he said. Although they greatly outnumber police officers, Manger said it was a function of the few times police are the first to arrive at an overdose.
With more officers trained, he said he expects more saves attributed to police.
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