Auburn Hills police officers hospitalized after possible exposure to narcotics
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (FOX 2) - Two police officers with Auburn Hills law enforcement are on the mend after a potential exposure to narcotics while making an arrest Monday night.
The officers started to feel sick and dizzy during a routine traffic stop and were taken to the hospital. It's unclear what the two officers were exposed to while checking out a vehicle on Pontiac near Commonwealth Avenue.
But it did require them to get checked out by doctors before they were cleared and released.
In at least one other case where a member of law enforcement got sick after being exposed to drugs, sources with the Detroit Police Department said the offending narcotic was fentanyl. It happened while an officer touched a driver's license during a traffic stop a while back.
Steve Dolunt, a former assistant chief with DPD said the added threat of exposure to a lethal amount of something like fentanyl only makes routine stops more dangerous.
"The problem is there’s no such thing as a routine traffic stop. Whether it’s stopping someone for a gun, traffic violation - if they have narcotics in the car, especially with fentanyl - it’s deadly. Whether they know it or not, if someone dies from that, they’re going to be charged with some type of murder," he said.
Fentanyl is among the most dangerous illicit drugs circulating in the country. Dolunt says only a gram of the drug can be fatal without the aid of narcan - about the size of a paper clip.
That means even accidental contact can have deadly consequences.
"Then what if you bring it home? What if you do get it on your clothes and you don’t realize, it doesn't affect you, you take it home to your wife, who might be pregnant with your kids, then what? Then what? 'Well, I didn’t know.'" he said. "That’s not an excuse."
Auburn Hills police say more information on the incident will be released this week.
Kids find dad unresponsive due to suspected fentanyl overdose; 2 dead
The father, 34, is currently in critical condition after being given Narcan, Southfield police said. However, his two friends died; they were brothers who were 37 and 39 years old.