In the early evening hours of Easter Sunday, April 21, Bristol Police responded to a Hope Street residence after receiving a report of an unresponsive female. On Monday, the department issued a statement on the incident, which read, in part, “In a joint effort with the Bristol Paramedics Unit and the Bristol Rescue, a 39-year-old female was revived after being administered Narcan yesterday … Officers arrived at the residence and observed the woman lying on the ground unresponsive. At that time, Sgt. Michael Vieira administered two separate doses of Narcan in an attempt to revive the woman. Paramedics and rescue arrived on scene shortly thereafter and were able to provide additional treatment.”

Individual doses of Narcan were just recently provided to members of the Bristol Police Department, following a Friday, April 12, training session. While the BPD has long carried Narcan in supervisors vehicles, it was only recently supplied to every officer after an officer-driven and community-based effort to close the gap in care, when officers may arrive on the scene of an overdose before medics.

According to Captain Brian Burke, the department’s communications officer, “Our officers arrived before the medics and were able to administer Narcan; then medics arrived and with additional treatment she was able to walk to the rescue for transport to Providence.

“If anyone knows anyone suffering from opioid use disorder, please contact the 24-hour hotline at 401/246-0700 or the Recovery Center at 378 Hope St.,” he said.

“We are very happy about the positive outcome,” said Chief Brian Peters.