Overland Park police to get trained on Narcan to combat fentanyl overdose crisis

Overland Park is moving forward with a plan to train police to administer Narcan, a medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose within minutes.

The Overland Park City Council approved the agreement, so that the county emergency medical director can work with the city’s police department to review protocol and train officers to administer Narcan nasal spray when they suspect someone has experienced an overdose.

City officials hope to have officers trained and carrying Narcan, the brand name for naloxone, by mid-January, said Meg Ralph, a spokeswoman for Overland Park.

As of Nov. 1, the city has had 71 drug overdoses in 2022. Ten of those incidents were deadly. Compared to 2016, when there were 20 overdose incidents and four deaths, the number of drug overdoses and deaths this year in Overland Park has at least tripled since that time, following the deadly trend of increases across the metro area.

“At this point, we’re still learning how often officers will use Narcan,” Ralph said, “but it’s a tool we want to have available if needed.”

School districts around the Kansas City metro area are also stocking Narcan as overdoses and deaths have risen in particular among youth ages 15 to 24.

Last fall, the Kearney school district said officials saved a student’s life using a supply of the medication that had arrived days before.

In March, the North Kansas City district said it lost 16-year-old Ethan Everley to an accidental fentanyl overdose. The De Soto district lost 16-year-old Cooper Davis last summer, when he took half a pill that he didn’t know was laced with fentanyl.