DENVER (KDVR) — Intense body camera video from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department is showing how the dangerous drug fentanyl can impact officers, and it’s already being used as a training tool in Colorado.
The video shows a new sheriff’s deputy collapsing after being exposed to fentanyl while searching a car during an arrest.
Deputy David Faiivae was still in training and was on his first radio call of the day with his field training officer, Cpl. Scott Crane.
Faiivae found a bag of white powder while searching a vehicle involved in an arrest.
“It could be cocaine or fentanyl,” Crane can be hard saying to the trainee. A short time later, the corporal confirms: “It tested positive for fentanyl.”
In a testimonial released as part of the public safety video, Crane says he warned the less-experienced Faiivae to be more careful handling the drugs. “That stuff’s no joke, dude,” he can be heard telling the deputy in body camera video.
“I was like, ‘Hey dude, too close, you can’t get that close to it,”” Crane said in the public safety video. “A couple seconds later, he took some steps back and he collapsed.”
Video shows Crane jump into action and administer Narcan nasal spray to to Faiivae — it’s used to treat suspected opioid overdoses — until paramedics arrived.
Here in Colorado, the video is already being used a training tool in some law enforcement agencies. The training unit in the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office immediately sent the video to its deputies, hoping it can be used as a resource.
“It can easily happen to any officer on any day on any street,” Sheriff Tony Spurlock said as he watched the video with FOX31. “This is the fifth time I’ve seen this video now, and it still impacts me.”
Overdose deaths related to fentanyl more than doubled in Colorado from 2019 to 2020.
Most of those deaths were people who took other illicit drugs that were laced with lethal amounts of the drug, which can be as small as two milligrams.