The City of London Police has expanded an innovative scheme that will introduce emergency trauma pack training to police officers in the Square Mile.
Sixty officers in total from the City of London Police will be trained to use the kits, which will be stored at various locations across the City. Each pack is filled with specialist medical equipment to treat casualties. The locations of the packs are plotted on a map so that the police control room are able to make use of the packs in the event of a major incident.
The initial trauma pack scheme was launched last year. There are now almost 100 bags in various premises around the City and staff at all of these premises have received training in how to use them.
The cost of the kit, estimated at around £470, and its upkeep, are the responsibility of the business that purchases them. They will be stored in a secure location within the business premises and each business will appoint a key holder, who can be contacted 24 hours a day should the kit be needed by officers.
The kits contain around 40 items, including face masks, batteries, ice packs, goggles, adhesive dressings, eye pads, and more.
Insp Chris Hay, from the City of London Police, said, “The purpose of this scheme is simple. We want to boost the ability of our front line police officer to treat casualties in the event of a major incident. Unfortunately the threat to the UK from international terrorism is ‘severe’, meaning an attack is highly likely. As we have seen over the past year in the UK, the first aid treatment which is carried out within the first few moments following an attack can be life-saving.
“By having our officers trained, it means that we can respond rapidly to these emergencies and can hopefully save lives. We hope to develop and continue our officer training and hope to increase the coverage of the packs throughout the City.”
Acting Sgt Ron Henry, who organised the training for his City of London Police colleagues, said, “We now have 12 fully trained officers who can use the emergency trauma packs. Over the next few months we will train more officers from our Uniformed Policing unit so that 60 in total will be trained to an enhanced first aid level and be able to use them. The first group for training had officers from Response Policing, Support Group, Community Policing and the Transport and Highways Operations Group.
“We are constantly working to make the City a safe place to work, live and visit and we hope that by giving our officers advanced medical skills we can do just that.”
