Police Field Now or Within

¶ … Police Field Now or Within the Future The January 2010 shooting death of United States Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona was undoubtedly tragic. Many condolences have gone out to the families of the deceased, to their friends and to all of their loved ones, particularly since in the wake of this devastating shooting incident six innocent victims lost their lives and 19 more were injured.

A number of issues were raised by the nefarious actions of Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old college student who was the gunman and had a prior history of drug abuse and misogynistic rants according to Bryn Bailer's July 18 feature on the website of Police Magazine entitled "Responding To The Tucson Shooting." Some of them, of course, are more salient than others.

Just why exactly are extended magazine clips so readily available to the public? Why are gun control laws so lax that virtually anyone can legally purchase and arm him or herself with one? And why is it that there are not stricter regulations for the intake and treatment of patients at mental healthcare facilities, which are suffering from overcrowding and a surplus of work-related incidents? While many of these questions will continue to go unanswered, a list of some of the victims, such as the nine-year-old girl and the federal judge who were murdered at the scene of the crime, reveals that answers will eventually need to be produced to ensure that such a travesty does not happen again.

Yet perhaps the one redeeming positive within all of these bleak outlooks is the reaction of law enforcement to this particular crime. The numbers which Bailer cites are certainly an encouragement in the midst of such a sad occasion. Four minutes after the reception of the initial emergency call for help, Loughner was taken into custody. 13 minutes after Loughner was arrested, paramedics were allowed onto the crime scene and were able to treat some of the wounded.

A mere 11 eleven minutes following the arrival of the paramedics, the first of many ambulances was able to depart for a neighboring hospital where further treatment was administered.

The key to such a coordinated response among these disparate entities which also included Pima County Sheriff's Department, Northwest Fire District (whose paramedics were some of the first to arrive at the scene of the crime) and general EMT staff, was a unified effort in which the traditional departmental barriers that can often separate such important entities were previously breached allowing for increased communication and an overall faster response time.

According to Ray Sayre, who is one of the lead instructors for the University of Nevada at Las Vegas-based Frontline Responder Training Project program, such efforts were previously planned and therefore fairly expedient to implement.

Sayre is also employed as a firefighter in Tucson, and played an integral role in the facilitation of its Metropolitan Medical Response System, which is funded by a United States Department of Homeland Security grant specifically tailored to bring together a diversity of departments such as public utility companies, school districts, hospitals, police and fire departments in the event of disaster. These departments were trained in the most expedient methods of responding to unexpected emergencies, as their expeditious timing in the case of Loughner's shooting rampage certainly indicates.

Furthermore, the swift response times also indicate that there was a degree of individual heroism which was able to be made manifest due to such measures. Subsequently, the primary focus of this editorial is to urge Police Magazine, individual law enforcement offices across the country, as well as law enforcement officers themselves, to implement these type of measures (which allowed for such a coordinated response from these disparate entities) across the country.

The benefits of implementing programs such as the Metropolitan Medical Response System in cities and states throughout the U.S. would certainly be manifold, as it would dramatically assist in the work efforts of the aforementioned departments were they previously familiarized with working together in the face of adversity.

I do realize, of course, that the coordination of this type of municipal cooperation would require a substantial amount of training for the various employees involved, which would ideally be an addition to the training necessary for the respective jobs in these organizations. I am also aware that such organization would require a significant amount of pecuniary backing, and that the approval of police departments (no matter on how small or large a scale) in itself would not be sufficient to galvanize such activity among these myriad different entities.

As mentioned previously, the funds which supported the Metropolitan Medical Response System were administered by a specific grant of a Homeland Security program. I am not at all definite in regards to the feasibility of this specific governmental entity's ability to fund similar programs throughout the United States. But the remunerative measures necessary for such an integral action should come from somewhere, and with the backing of law enforcement officials, agencies, and headquarters, the likelihood of procuring such monetary support would be greatly increased.

I am thoroughly convinced that the implementation of programs similar to the Metropolitan Medical Response System in different cities across the country would certainly aid in the efforts of law enforcement officers for additional unexpected tragedies such as that which took place.