Law enforcement tactical EMT-B Certificiation Training

M1Garand · 11-26-2009, 15:50

The Southern California Tactical Medical Task Force organized by FBI-Los Angeles send out an email stating that it is setting up a law enforcement tactical medic training class for EMT-B. This class apparently will train and certified any public safety officer to become an EMT-B with training focusing on tactical medical operations. I was told that the course is free as the task force does not charge any fee; however, the local college providing the facility charges $400 for 7 units of college tuition as well for books and materials.

That is really a good deal. The only catch is that you have to be a personnel with a public safety agency, ie, law enforcement, fire, EMS, etc. The contact email is johnpi@fbi.gov.

chuckman · 11-27-2009, 05:31

Sounds like a good class but EMT-B is mostly useless to LEOs, unless they also do first responder stuff as well. Still, a good class and free, and you can't beat that.

trifecta · 11-27-2009, 19:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuckman

Sounds like a good class but EMT-B is mostly useless to LEOs, unless they also do first responder stuff as well. Still, a good class and free, and you can't beat that.

All true. It's great learning for anyone but for practical purposes, when it all goes south you are going to wish you had an experienced medic, not just an EMT who had the class.

M1Garand · 11-30-2009, 23:22

My understanding is that these tactical EMT-Basic will operate as part of law enforcement operations, such as high risk SWAT arrest and search warrants, search and rescue, disaster management, mass casualty situations, and critical incidents. Although these medics are not higher-level providers, but they may be the only medics inside the tactical perimeters such as high school shootings. Better a EMT-B medic than none. I guess.

chuckman · 12-01-2009, 05:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by M1Garand

My understanding is that these tactical EMT-Basic will operate as part of law enforcement operations, such as high risk SWAT arrest and search warrants, search and rescue, disaster management, mass casualty situations, and critical incidents. Although these medics are not higher-level providers, but they may be the only medics inside the tactical perimeters such as high school shootings. Better a EMT-B medic than none. I guess.

I will get flamed for this, but having been in EMS for 15 years and a corpsman with the Marines for almost that long, the only thing that an advanced provider can do to save lives is provide an advanced airway, and even that is not a priority in trauma in a tactical environment. Really, in trauma, saving lives is about stopping the bleeding...everything else comes in second. IVs don't save lives. ET intubation doesn't save lives. Stopping the bleeding saves lives. EMT basic is just fine for a tactical environment.

trifecta · 12-01-2009, 08:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuckman

I will get flamed for this, but having been in EMS for 15 years and a corpsman with the Marines for almost that long, the only thing that an advanced provider can do to save lives is provide an advanced airway, and even that is not a priority in trauma in a tactical environment. Really, in trauma, saving lives is about stopping the bleeding...everything else comes in second. IVs don't save lives. ET intubation doesn't save lives. Stopping the bleeding saves lives. EMT basic is just fine for a tactical environment.

I don't think there is much flaming done in the FF/EMS forum. Would you rather have someone with 15 yrs actual field experience or someone who had a class sometime and never worked in the field? That's my biggest point. They don't generally take a new PD officer straight from the academy and put him on SWAT. A place like So Cal has hundreds(or thousands) of people trained and working in EMS. In an world of limited funding it makes more sense to me to utilize existing resources where possible.

Stay safe and Never Forget.