CHICAGO — Chicago Police officers began receiving combat medical kits Friday to treat themselves or civilians with serious wounds in emergencies, the Police Department said.
The independent, nonprofit Chicago Police Foundation, led by various city business leaders, is funding the initiative to provide all officers trained in the Law Enforcement Medical and Rescue Training technique with the customized kits, the Police Department said.
The kits will supply trained officers with the equipment they need to administer rapid on-site aid for serious wounds and injuries until appropriate medical help arrives.
Ald. Edward Burke (14th) proposed giving police the kits in late September after two officers who are military combat veterans saved a man's life this summer with blood-clotting gauze used to treat war wounds.
Officer Brian Berkowitz testified that a wounded officer can bleed out and die in two to four minutes, while it typically takes an ambulance six to 12 minutes to arrive at a scene. If it's a crime in progress with prolonged shooting, an ambulance might not be able to get to the wounded, he added.
"If we are injured, the only person we can count on is ourselves," said Berkowitz, who is an instructor in the Police Department's Law Enforcement Medical and Rescue Training class.
The potentially life-saving kits, costing $100 to $115, include the blood-clotting gauze as well as a combat tourniquet that has been highly effective in treating arm and leg wounds, Berkowitz said.
Burke changed his proposal to give the kits only to officers who've taken and passed the course Berkowitz teaches. Berkowitz said the Police Department has more than 3,200 officers who've taken the medical course, which is now mandatory for new recruits but voluntary for police veterans.
Berkowitz said, up to now, officers had to buy the kits themselves, sometimes using their equipment allowance.
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