NCJ Number
185824
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 27 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2000 Pages: 86-93
Date Published
November 2000
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Police officers need basic training in emergency medical procedures; geographic location appears to influence the amount of medical training an officer receives and a random cross-country survey indicate that emergency medical training for law enforcement personnel is being reduced in some regions.
Abstract
Perry Dobbs, who is a medic, CPR instructor, and Texas Department of Health examiner, recommends higher levels of medical training for police officers. He notes that they need this training because volunteer fire departments and medical services agencies urge the placement of external defibrillators in every police cruiser to improve survival rates of victims of cardiac arrest. Dobbs trains police to handle the types of medical incidents they are most likely to handle on the job, whether they are shootings, traffic accidents, or other types of medical crises. A contrast with Dobbs’s small business operation is the North East Multi-Regional Training (NEMRT) in North Aurora, Illinois. This nonprofit corporation, owned by 320 police agencies in metropolitan Chicago presents more than 800 training programs, including medical training, annually and is one of 7 training facilities accessed by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. Illinois police recruits receive 18 hours of training on initial medical responses. Another type of training is the water rescue and water safety training available through the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. Law Enforcement Officers in Maricopa County, (Ariz.) receive emergency medical technician (EMT) training and meet the national certification standards for EMTs. They take 40-hour refresher courses as well. Photographs