LANSING, Mich.—A group of 20 lawmakers backs a bill to require more rigorous medical training for police officers, borne of fear that some rural police are not properly equipped to rescue people undergoing heroin or prescription opioid overdoses.
Republican bill sponsor state Rep. Hank Vaupel, a Fowlerville Republican, said current law doesn’t require police to stay up-to-date on medical procedures that can save people from a narcotics overdose. But the organization that develops training standards for the state’s 20 police academies and another that represents police officers say law enforcement are already trained in practices Vaupel’s bill would mandate.
Vaupel said he spoke with two police chiefs that he would not name who don’t require officers in their departments to be trained to do “rescue breathing,” commonly known as mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
