Bookmark & ShareEquipment - Sophisticated yet Simple & Effective
We are police officers first. We do have a lot of other tasks to perform and other equipment to carry. Nonetheless we recognize our innate role in emergency medical services and view saving lives as our highest priority. There does need to be a balancing of our emergency functions. To help maintain that balance we strive to keep things simple. Modern AEDs fit perfectly into this balance.
While our 9-1-1 dispatchers are instructed to err on the side of patient safety, we do not generally respond to medical incidents unless it is life threatening and there is something an officer can do to help. We follow the "ABC" rule of emergency medical care. That means if there is a threat to a person's airway (obstruction or respiratory arrest), or someone is bleeding profusely or they have no circulation (cardiac arrest) then officers will respond.
The equipment we carry is limited to the bare essentials. We carry only a first aid kit, a CPR airway/mask and an AED kit. We do not carry splints, oxygen, suction equipment, etc. We carry only what we need to capture those fleeting life-saving moments ahead of our advanced life support partners.
All Rochester police officers and fire fighters carry the Philips Heartstart FR2+ AED with SmartCPR and Quick Shock. It also displays the ECG and records all scene audio upon activation. The SmartCPR algorithm makes the CPR vs. shock first decision for the user thus making for easy implementation of the 2006 AHA guidelines. We are optimistic that the SmartCPR algorithm and new AHA guidelines will raise our survival rates even higher in the future.