A total of 80 police officers on St. Croix have received training this year that could save lives. Officers learned how to use heart defibrillators and perform CPR thanks to the efforts of local sponsors, St. Croix Police Chief Christopher Howell said Tuesday.
“The officers are currently way beyond the curve when it comes to emergency medical training for officers,” Chief Howell said. “The department has recently made a quantum leap with the training of 40 additional officers, who were added to the ranks of another 40 officers, who were trained earlier in the year.”
Howell said heart defibrillators are currently located at the three Police Commands on St. Croix: Frederiksted, Estate La Reine, and Christiansted, as well as in the mobile command. Three of the life-saving kits were donated by Cher Will, and the remainder donated by Continuum Care. Continuum Care also funded the training, which was conducted by St. Croix Rescue.
“The likelihood of police officers being exposed to persons experiencing medical trauma is very high,” Howell said. “Many times, officers are the first on the scene and are in a position to administer life saving treatment to a victim. The more training the officers have, the more likely that a victim can be kept alive until medical personal arrive on the scene.”
Howell said the police department will be offering additional medical training to the officers, including trauma management, bleeding control, assisting burn victims, and more.
