State and local police are testing their Ford Explorer SUV cruisers after two Auburn cops were hospitalized — one following a crash — due to high levels of carbon monoxide, authorities said.

The incidents are just the latest of concerns raised nationwide about carbon monoxide in the SUVs that are widely used as police cruisers.

“They are installing carbon monoxide monitors and they are running a sample of cruisers through simulated law-enforcement activities,” state police spokesman David Procopio told the Herald yesterday.

Representatives from Ford arrived at the state police emergency driving course in Devens yesterday after incidents had been reported around the country, including Austin, Texas, where the police have pulled more than 400 cruisers from use.

An Auburn police officer passed out while driving yesterday morning and rear-ended another car at a stop sign before caroming across a street and into a church parking lot, Auburn Police Chief Andrew Sluckis said.

No one was seriously injured in the accident, but the Auburn Fire Department was called in and found nine additional cruisers with high levels of carbon monoxide, Sluckis said. All of the officers who had been driving those cars were also tested and one additional officer was hospitalized, the chief added.

“We haven’t had any complaints from anyone regarding signs or symptoms or light-headedness or anything regarding carbon monoxide,” Sluckis said. “Up until (yesterday), it hadn’t been an issue for us at all.”

Sluckis said the department has ordered carbon monoxide monitors which were due to be installed in every police vehicle by this morning. The cruiser the officer was driving when he passed out was a brand-new 2017 Ford Explorer SUV Police Interceptor.

Both officers were expected to be treated and released, Sluckis said.

Auburn Fire Chief Stephen M. Coleman Jr. said it is unclear how long the officer involved in the accident had been breathing the fumes.

“His levels were not near a deadly level,” Coleman said, “enough to make him pass out, but it was not a deadly level.”

The Interceptor makes up the vast majority of the state police fleet, Procopio said, adding results of yesterday’s tests are expected today. The cars tested were put through various simulations to mimic law-enforcement use, including driving at highway speeds for long periods of time, periodic bursts of speed to simulate a pursuit or rushing to a scene, and idling to simulate a traffic patrol.

Several officers have reported smelling exhaust, Procopio said, but no one has become sick or symptomatic.

The Boston Police Department is also testing all Ford SUVs in its fleet to determine whether they are a hazard to the officers operating them, a BPD spokeswoman said.

In a statement released last week, Ford Motor Co. said it would pay for any repairs needed to correct possible carbon monoxide leaks. The company said after-market installation of lights, wires, sirens, and other police necessities may have left holes which, if not properly sealed, can create an opening where exhaust could enter the passenger cabin.