Submitted
The Nelson Police Department has sent officers to San Diego to attend a two-day intensive training course on tactical emergency casualty care.
The two officers, Cst. Jay Noppe and Cst. Matt Caldwell, were accompanied by a third police officer, as well as Dr. Nic Sparrow of the Kootenay Emergency Response Physicians Association and Jason Lin, a helicopter emergency medical service nurse and rescue trauma and casual care instructor.
The course teaches life-saving techniques and strategies for providing the best trauma and emergency care in a civilian tactical operation or other human threat emergencies. This is the first time that police officers and other allied medical professionals from the Kootenays will have travelled together to undertaken this type of training.
“We have a lot to learn from law enforcement and EMS agencies in the United States and that’s why we are all going to California,” said Sparrow.
The information and lessons learned at the course will be shared with law enforcement and emergency medical service providers in the Kootenays.
“This is an excellent opportunity for our officers to attend the same course with Dr. Sparrow and fellow first responders from the Kootenays,” said Nelson police Chief Paul Burkart.
“The group will return to provide this training to other members of our department. In the future, when our members are out at a scene, and medical first responders have not arrived, or cannot enter the scene because of the risk involved, including when there is an armed suspect in the area, our members will be able to provide that immediate trauma care until medical first responders can attend safely.
“With our members receiving this training, with the attendance of Dr. Sparrow right to the scene of these incidents as a volunteer emergency physician, with us maintaining our own 911 service right at the Nelson Police Department, and having both EHS and local fire attending medical calls, I believe Nelson residents will receive the best emergency medical response in the province.”
Much of the training cost for the officers was covered by the Nelson Police Foundation, a non-profit fundraising group that provides funding for specialized equipment and training, as well as police youth programs that are normally not covered by the annual police budget.