Chelsea police launch safety system vs. fentanyl
Chelsea’s police chief will unveil new equipment and protocols today designed to protect officers from exposure to fentanyl, after three of his men were hospitalized last week responding to a crash involving a driver and two passengers who’d overdosed on the potent synthetic opiate.
Chief Brian Kyes said Chelsea police cruisers will soon be equipped with disposable masks that cover the nose and mouth, disposable eyewear and long, heavy-duty gloves.
“We’re trying to be as proactive as possible,” Kyes said. “I know it’s new, and I know that perhaps every police department isn’t doing it, but I’m sure at some point it’s going to become the norm, just to protect our personnel.”
The department will also be ordering large water jugs to place in supervisors’ cars for officers who fear they were exposed and need to be washed down, and a biohazard storage unit for drug samples officers fear might contain fentanyl, which is increasingly laced into heroin, cocaine and even marijuana.
Chelsea’s precautions appear to be a first for a local police department. Kyes said the ideas came from a conversation with the special agent in charge of the Boston office of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, which he said takes similar measures in drug raids.
Three Chelsea officers responding to a minivan accident on Friday were hospitalized after they were exposed to a cigarette box allegedly containing fentanyl.
All three officers reported to work Saturday and “were fine,” Kyes said yesterday, after hospital checkups to treat feelings of tingling and lightheadedness.
Kyes said the department will file charges in Chelsea District Court today against the driver and his two passengers, all of whom were hospitalized after the crash and released. Investigators believe cocaine found in the minivan was laced with fentanyl, he said.
The driver, Geovani Jesus Rodriguez, 34, of Stoughton, will be charged with driving under the influence of drugs and cocaine possession. The passengers — Stanley Standrick III, 35, of Norwood and Michael Goldshot, 35, of Salem — will be charged with cocaine possession.
All three will be summonsed to Chelsea District Court for arraignment on a date to be determined.
PROTECTION: Firefighters remove materials from a car, right, after three Chelsea police officers were allegedly exposed to fentanyl.