Naloxone in Police Scotland - a Pilot Evaluation

Community stakeholders’ perceptions of the training, carriage and administration of naloxone by police in Scotland. (HR25) (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hillen, P. (2025, April). Community stakeholders’ perceptions of the training, carriage and administration of naloxone by police in Scotland. (HR25). Presented at HR25: Harm Reducution International Conference 2025, Bogota, Columbia

Background

Scotland has been called, “Europe’s drugs deaths capital”. In 2020 in Scotland, drug-related deaths (DRD) were at an all-time high. There were 1,339 DRD, a rate 3.5 times higher than the UK average and the highest in Europe. Of all DRD... Read More about Community stakeholders’ perceptions of the training, carriage and administration of naloxone by police in Scotland. (HR25).

“I’m not going to leave someone to die”: A policing response to Scotland’s drugs death crisis (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hillen, P., & Heyman, I. (2024, November). “I’m not going to leave someone to die”: A policing response to Scotland’s drugs death crisis. Presented at Edinburgh Sceptics, Edinburgh

Evaluating the training, carriage and administration of naloxone in Police Scotland (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hillen, P., Speakman, E., Dougall, N., Heyman, I., Murray, J., Jamieson, M., Aston, E., & McAuley, A. (2024, September). Evaluating the training, carriage and administration of naloxone in Police Scotland. Presented at Policing, Public Health and Vulnerable People - Scottish Institute of Policing Research, Edinburgh

Police officer knowledge of and attitudes to opioid overdose and naloxone administration: an evaluation of police training in Scotland (2024)
Journal Article
Hillen, P., Speakman, E. M., Jamieson, M., Dougall, N., Heyman, I., Murray, J., Aston, E. V., & McAuley, A. (2025). Police officer knowledge of and attitudes to opioid overdose and naloxone administration: an evaluation of police training in Scotland. Policing and Society, 35(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2024.2367142

In the context of escalating drug-related deaths, during 2021 Police Scotland implemented a pilot project incorporating naloxone training to test the carriage and administration of naloxone by officers. The current paper presents data from the evalua... Read More about Police officer knowledge of and attitudes to opioid overdose and naloxone administration: an evaluation of police training in Scotland.

Police officer’s perspectives of people who use drugs: compassion or stigma? Evidence from an evaluation of Police Scotland’s naloxone pilot (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hillen, P., Heyman, I., Dougall, N., Murray, J., Aston, E., Jamieson, M., Speakman, E., & McAuley, A. (2024, March). Police officer’s perspectives of people who use drugs: compassion or stigma? Evidence from an evaluation of Police Scotland’s naloxone pilot. Presented at Drugs Research Network Webinar: ‘Drugs, Stigma and Emergency Services’, Online

This presentation explored selected quantitative and qualitative data from an evaluation of Police Scotland’s naloxone pilot. The data indicated that police officers in Scotland had a range of views about problem drug use, and people who use drugs (P... Read More about Police officer’s perspectives of people who use drugs: compassion or stigma? Evidence from an evaluation of Police Scotland’s naloxone pilot.