The province's police watchdog is investigating a London police officer who gave naloxone to a man suffering from a drug overdose.
The Special Investigations Unit invoked its mandate after the incident, which happened Wednesday night. The SIU says its preliminary investigation has determined that London police officers responded to a home in the area of Huron St. and Adelaide St. around 7:35pm on Wednesday. When they arrived, one of the officers began performing CPR on a 21-year-old man and administered naloxone to him.
An ambulance arrived and took the man to hospital, where the SIU says he is in life threatening condition.
The incident happened on the same day that the association representing OPP officers called on the SIU to end the practice of investigating officers who administer naloxone to people experiencing an overdose.
“Subjecting police officers across Ontario to full investigations in these cases is not reasonable or fair,” said Ontario Provincial Police Association (OPPA) President Rob Jamieson in a statement issued Wednesday. “Our members do what every other first responder would do in these situations – they try to save a life. But when they use naloxone and the victim does not survive, they know that a long and stressful investigation by the SIU will soon follow. Putting an officer through a traumatic situation, then asking them to relive that very trauma through the SIU investigation could be detrimental to their mental health.”
The OPPA is calling on the SIU to adopt an approach similar to what is done in British Columbia, in which the Independent Investigations Office has exempted officers who are involved in providing life-saving measures that ultimately prove unsuccessful.
The SIU says two investigators and two forensic investigators have been assigned to this incident in London.
The SIU is urging anyone who may have information about this investigation to contact the lead investigator at 1-800-787-8529. The unit is also urging anyone who may have any video evidence related to this incident to upload that video through the SIU website.
