Santa Clara County’s EMS chief criticized the San Jose Fire Department for failing to inform about narcotics theft incidents, risking patient safety. EMS Director Nick Clay claims Chief Robert Sapien knew of the violation longer than admitted and calls for a formal review of affected patients. The public was first informed on April 16 of a captain’s arrest for drug theft, but reports of tampered medications date back to early 2023, which were not disclosed by the fire department despite warning signs from within its ranks.
Not only do these incidents themselves pose a significant public safety risk, policy violation, and involve potential violation of Federal law, but the lack of notification to the EMS Agency substantially compounds this risk to the public.
The county - and the general public - first learned of the issue on April 16, when San Jose officials announced the arrest of a fire captain for allegedly stealing paramedic morphine and tampering with drug kits across as many as 17 fire stations.
Emails later obtained and published by this news outlet showed firefighters sounding alarms as early as 2023 - and gave patients morphine out of tampered containers.
The city never disclosed these patient exposure reports, even after the fire captain's arrest.
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