Police equipped to help in emergency

Harvey police now have a second Automatic External Defibrillator unit for emergencies thanks to St John Ambulance.

Police will now be better equipped to deal with emergencies when out on the road.

St John Ambulance volunteer Paul Beech said the device would help with early intervention.

“These guys are out and about all the time, whereas if we get a call we have to get our crew together and an ambulance out to get to the scene and it ends up taking longer,” Mr Beech said.

“The earlier the intervention, the greater the success.

“Until the ambulance gets to the scene the AED units give police that extra tool to help out in an emergency.”

A slight change in the shape of the unit is the only difference between the new and existing version.

“The voice commands, software and operation of the units has remained the same,” Mr Beech said.

“They are something alien to most people because they have never had experience with them, but they have been designed to be relatively easy to use so that any layman can pick one up and use it straight away.”

Sen. Const. Kylie Jones said police were trained to familiarise themselves with the AED units.

“We are walked through the process on how to use them, so that if and when we are faced with an emergency situation we don’t have to sit there and read the instructions,” Sen. Const. Jones said.

“It’s great that we now have one for each of our cars as it adds something extra that we can do to help out the community.”