Early Defibrillation
Concerns of Police Officers
Some of the questions we are frequently asked include: "How did the officers feel about getting involved with defibrillation?" or "How did you get the officers to accept handling medical calls?"
We understand that the Rochester Police Department is somewhat unique inasmuch as our officers have served as first responders on medical calls for as long as anyone on the department can remember. In fact, until sometime in the 1960’s, the Police Department provided the ambulance service for the City of Rochester. After this was taken over by a private company, our department still kept a foot in the door on medical calls by retaining the role of first responder. Our officers don’t know any other way.
Certainly a few officers were apprehensive about getting involved with defibrillation. It seemed pretty advanced to some, perhaps beyond the limits of what a BLS first responder should do. But most officers accepted it enthusiastically. Now that we have numerous "saves" under our belts, it would be more difficult to take the defibrillators away from them. Our officers are also very proud of this program and they have the right to be proud. There has been no other program in the history of our department that has saved as many lives.
For departments that have not traditionally handled medical calls, it will definitely involve a paradigm shift for the officers. However, when one officers gets the first save on the department, the buy-in will be almost overwhelming. It seems that police officers like saving lives. There is no other feeling quite like being integrally involved with saving another persons life. Those of us fortunate enough to have experienced this will never forget it.
Police Union Issues
The Rochester Police Department is somewhat unique in this respect as well. The defibrillation program started in 1990. The first bargaining group (an association, not a union) was formed about 1967. Written contracts between the officers and the city were not created until several years after that. As previously stated, officers had been serving as first responders longer than anyone could remember. Their BLS medical training was part of the existing expectations. AEDs were simply viewed as a tool to help officers do a better job at what they were already doing. When the officers later unionized (1996 – Law Enforcement Labor Services, Inc., Local # 194) the Early Defibrillation Program had already been firmly established and was never an issue for negotiations.
Deploying defibrillators in squad cars is an issue that should be discussed between labor and management, especially if the officers are taking on a new role in EMS. However, if officers are already required to be trained in CPR then they are really only being provided with better tools to do their existing job.