Fatal Overdoses in Boulder — 2025
Access the full report
The full published report may be viewed here:
👉 Fatal Overdoses in Boulder — 2025 (Full Report)
About this report
This report documents suspected fatal overdose incidents in Boulder, Colorado during 2025 using publicly available information including police and emergency radio traffic, police reports, court records, media coverage, and other public-safety sources.
The purpose of this project is not sensationalism. Rather, it is to preserve a structured public-interest archive of overdose deaths and related emergency incidents that might otherwise disappear into fragmented records systems, brief media mentions, or temporary public datasets.
Many of the incidents documented here occurred in public or semi-public spaces, including sidewalks, parks, encampments, parking areas, businesses, and residential locations throughout Boulder. In many cases, emergency responders administered naloxone (Narcan), CPR, or other lifesaving measures before a death was ultimately confirmed.
The report also reflects broader public-safety and public-health trends that have increasingly affected Boulder and surrounding communities in recent years, including fentanyl-related overdoses, polysubstance use, homelessness-related medical emergencies, and repeated overdose responses involving the same individuals or locations.
Important notes regarding sources and methodology
This report is based partly on real-time scanner traffic heard as incidents unfolded. Scanner traffic reflects information as initially reported to dispatchers and responding personnel and may be incomplete, preliminary, or later determined to be inaccurate.
Descriptions included here generally reflect reported events and emergency responses, not adjudicated findings or official determinations regarding cause of death.
The Boulder Police Department encrypted routine dispatch traffic on October 28, 2025, ending public access to most real-time law-enforcement communications. As a result, later incidents are substantially more difficult and expensive for members of the public to independently document using public records alone.
Whenever possible, incidents included in this archive have been supplemented or cross-referenced using publicly available police reports, court records, media reporting, or other official records.
Topics covered
This report includes incidents and trends involving:
- suspected fentanyl overdoses,
- fatal poisonings,
- emergency overdose responses,
- naloxone administration,
- overdose deaths occurring in public spaces,
- repeated overdose activity at specific locations,
- associated criminal investigations,
- medical responses by police, fire, and EMS personnel,
- and related public-safety concerns documented during 2025.
The report is intended to function both as a historical archive and as a resource for understanding larger patterns affecting Boulder’s public-safety landscape.
Related reports
Additional Boulder Public Safety Project reports and archives are available through the main reports index:
👉 Boulder Public Safety Reports (2023–Present)
You may also wish to view:
- Crime in Boulder — 2025
- Boulder Fires & Arsons
- Bicycle Theft Reports
- Historical police blotter archives
- Scanner transparency and public-records documentation
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