Police Officer Overdoses on Fentanyl During Traffic Stop

An Indiana police officer is recovering after a fentanyl overdose that occurred during a recent traffic stop.

Lt. Tony Wilson, with the Southport Police Department (SPD), pulled over a driver at a Speedway gas station on the south side of Indianapolis on July 19 around 7 p.m., according to local news outlet FOX59.

While searching the vehicle, Wilson discovered a dollar bill covered in a white powder that he suspected was fentanyl, according to the SPD. Upon inspection, he accidentally inhaled the substance, the outlet reported Wilson said.

The officer was able to call for help before passing out from the effects of the drug.

The Southport Police Department released a statement commending Wilson’s quick thinking, crediting it with saving his life.

“Demonstrating incredible presence of mind, Lt. Wilson was able to call for medical assistance before losing consciousness. Lt. Wilson is currently recovering and is expected to make full recovery,” SPD said in a statement.

“The officer was fighting for his life, he inhaled it, so trying to get himself help and also Narcan. There’s a lot going on in that situation,” said SPD Chief Thomas Vaughn in an interview with local journalist Rafael Sánchez.

Sánchez reported that the department is now reviewing the situation and whether it’s necessary to provide officers with special equipment to respond to narcotic-related cases.

It is not the first incident of its kind to leave an officer hospitalized.

In 2022, two California detectives were rushed to a hospital after being exposed to an unknown substance when searching a property in the San Fernando Valley. The woman in the apartment was also exposed and treated by the medical team.

In 2021, a police officer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, accidentally inhaled a “cloud” of cocaine.

An Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson told the Albuquerque Journal at the time that as the officer opened a car door to escort a detained man into the police station, “An unknown cloud of a powdery substance came out of the vehicle, and the officer inhaled it.”

Also in 2021, six police officers in Phoenix, Arizona, were hospitalized after being exposed to a substance that was suspected to have potentially been methamphetamine or fentanyl, after responding to a call in an apartment where four people were reportedly using both drugs.

One of the individuals reportedly refused to let the others leave and brandished a weapon. When the police arrived at the scene, they walked into a cloud of pepper spray and reported that there was another unknown substance present, possibly fentanyl.