A city audit is recommending the San Jose Fire Department strengthen its drug tracking and inventory security after painkiller thefts by a firefighter led to patients receiving morphine from tampered vials.
The audit, released Monday, recommends Fire Chief Robert Sapien’s department updates its policies on storage and access to paramedic drug kits, timing of inventory inspections, as well as access to biometric narcotics safes that the department plans to roll out over the next year.
“Our audit of the main safe inventory in the summer of 2025 revealed no evidence of theft or tampering,” the audit reads. “However, the current duties of the Fire Department’s Controlled Substances Program Manager (CSPM) are not sufficiently separated to ensure security of the medication.”…