Carbon Monoxide in cruiser sickens Providence officer

August 7, 2017 5:34 pm

By Alana Cerrone

acerrone@abc6.com

@Alana_Cerrone

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – What’s known as a police officer’s ‘office’ turned potentially deadly after carbon monoxide built up inside a Providence Police cruiser this weekend.

"We’re monitoring it…we have devices in the vehicles."

That device detected the CO and alerted the officer. Luckily, he took quick action, and got to a hospital.

"He’s doing well. He felt light-headed and so he did the proper thing we tested it and he’s well."

High levels of carbon monoxide in Ford police vehicles have been linked to incidents nationwide, including in Auburn, Massachusetts last week, when an officer passed out behind the wheel and hit another car.

Although Providence Police cruisers have already been equipped with detectors, this weekend’s incident prompted officials to take further precaution.

"We took it out of service, made sure it was not emitting high levels of CO, and it was not, so we put it back in service."

Meanwhile, the department says it’s in talks with Ford to figure out if a company rep needs to come to Providence to take a closer look at the cruisers.

"We’ll make sure those vehicles are safe for our officers."

Ford has come out and said the CO incidents are linked to after market modifications made to the SUV’s and not to manufacturing itself, but they still plan on fixing vehicles that are having problems.