The chief of police is standing by the board, and the department's choice to not carry Naloxone.
A protest by the Windsor Overdose Prevention Society called for Windsor Police Service to allow an overdose prevention site Friday, and also asked Chief Al Frederick and the Police Services Board to reconsider its stance on the life-saving-drug.
Naloxone snaps the victim out of respiratory arrest after an overdose essentially blocks the signal from the brain reminding the body to breath.
Frederick tells AM800 News officers assist paramedics around five times a day on calls where someone is known to police, or there may be a dangerous situation — but medical professionals are still the first and best option on scene in the majority of overdose situations.
"We're fully engaged in public safety from every perspective, we just don't want to be providing a service where we're not the most effective response," he says.
He says administering the drug isn't the root of the issue, it's knowing what to do afterwards.
"That's a whole different skill set to address the respiratory arrest, it's not as simple as administering Naloxone. It's the immediate emergency follow-up to that person that's required and we are not trained in that regard," says Frederick.
Frederick says money used to train officers would be better spent on prevention.
"If there is investment to be made, it's made at the level of response to people who need more support in programming and counselling," he says. "That's where it needs to happen."
Windsor was hit with four suspected overdose-deaths in a 24-hour period earlier this month.
The Blood Tribe First Nations Reserve near Lethbridge Alberta reported 22-overdoeses and one death in a 48-hour stretch last week, the reserves has a population of only 13,000.
— with files from AM800's Peter Langille.