The use of AEDs by police officers in the City of London
2001
Abstract The Guidelines 2000 for
cardiopulmonary resuscitationrecommend shock delivery to victims in
ventricular fibrillationwithin 5 min of call receipt by the
Emergency Medical Services. In an effort to achieve this goal, in some parts of the United
States,
policeofficers have been trained to use
automated external defibrillators(AEDs). We undertook a 3-year pilot evaluation of the use of AEDs by City of London police (CPOL) officers. Over a period of 3 years, 147 CPOL officers were trained in the use of an AED. Four AEDs were placed on rapid response vehicles covering the City of London. An overall call-response interval target was set at 8 min. The CPOL attended 1103 (90%) of the total of 1232 calls to which they were
summoned. The mean interval between the first call received and arrival of the CPOL on scene was 8.9±4.0 min. The CPOL applied AEDs to 25 victims, 13 of whom were initially in
ventricular fibrillation; at least one shock was delivered to all 13. The interval between call reception and delivery of the first shock was 5.5±2.5 min. The mean interval between switching on the AED and delivery of the first shock was 24±12 s. Two (15%) of these victims survived to hospital discharge. This study has confirmed the feasibility of training police officers in the UK to use AEDs as
first responders. The call received to arrival on scene interval should be reduced by improvements in communication between LAS and CPOL.
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