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Airborne Law Enforcement Association
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The Golden Hour
Life from Above
By Kenneth Solosky
NYPD Aviation
The biggest drawback of medevac assignments expressed by
airborne law enforcement flight crews is that due to their nature, they can
draw officers away from police work and assisting the street cop.
However, there are airborne units that are able to strike
a balance between edevac and standard police work. There are perhaps
thousands of cases in which the use of a police medevac helicopter was the
difference between life and death, and in the case of the Maryland State
Police (MSP) and Nassau County Police Department (NCPD) air sections, those
lives have been saved without sacrificing an inordinate number of police
assets. Two agencies doing it well and doing it right.
Necessary Sacrifices
Including response, scene time and return to service, most medevac
assignments take about one hour. If the aircraft is busy transporting a
victim from an auto accident, for example, the searches or other law
enforcement missions might have to wait. However, flight crews are quick to
point out the benefits of these missions. Besides the obvious benefit of
helping during serious emergencies, the public almost always views the
missions as “positive.” They are positive in the sense that they show the
beneficial side of law enforcement and the passion and caring of most law
enforcement personnel.
“I guess the hard part is that we respond to the worst
accidents, the worst traumas, yet we are able to assist in a very positive
way and help these critically injured persons get the care they desperately
need,” Nassau County’s Police Officer/Pilot Ralph Spinola said.
The Birth of Airborne Life Saving
The medevac mission for helicopters was born in World War II when 70 wounded
soldiers were transported from Luzon in the Philippines to rear-area
hospitals. However, it was the Korean War conflict that thrust the
helicopter into a large-scale medevac mission. Finally, the Vietnam conflict
stamped the helicopter in history as a critical tool in saving the lives of
U.S. soldiers.
In emergency medicine, trauma personnel refer to the
first hour of the injury as the “golden hour.” Numerous medical research
studies have shown that a trauma patient that reaches definitive care within
an hour of their injury has a significantly better chance of survival than
those in which treatment is delayed.
Dr. R. Adams Cowley was one of the leading forces in
promoting the “golden hour;” he helped start the renowned University of
Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, MD. Dr. Cawley strongly believed
that rapid transportation of trauma patients to appropriate medical
facilities would save lives. On March 19, 1970, in what is believed to be
the first non-military medevac in history, the Maryland State Police
transported a critically injured trauma patient via helicopter.
THE “GOLD STANDARD”: THE MARYLAND STATE POLICE (MSP)
The MSP began air medical transports in 1970 using Bell Jet Rangers.
They quickly established themselves as the “gold standard” for these types
of missions and are the yardstick against which many agencies measure their
own programs.
Currently, the MSP uses 12 AE365 Dauphins for their
missions. In addition to the helicopters, the MSP maintains three fixed-wing
aircraft that are primarily used in pure law enforcement missions. Most
aircraft maintenance is performed in-house by over 20 mechanics at their
Martin State Airport in Baltimore County.
The current Commander, Major Jim Hock, a 22 year veteran
of the MSP, is proud of his unit’s accomplishments. “I feel that we have the
most experience in these types of missions and are among the best police/medevac
operations in the world,” he said. “As commercial medevac operators increase
their presence, government/public use operators must take a long, hard look
at their own operations.”
To survive that government scrutiny, Major Hock is
currently examining several initiatives to make the MSP Aviation Command a
Part 135 operator and to have the operation accredited by the Commission on
Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS).
“It’s about being progressive and always looking for
safer and better ways of doing things,” Hock said.
Major Hock is also looking at a helicopter to replace the
current Dauphin. Certainly not a small undertaking, the entire project is
expected to cost $150 million dollars. “We have a good safety record that is
a combination of hard work, dedication and a commitment to safety by all
personnel. We need the best equipment to perform these demanding missions.”
The entire unit, including pilots, paramedics, mechanics
and administrative personnel, numbers around 150. Always staffed by a pilot
and paramedic, the unit responds to over 5,300 medical calls a year, which
represents about 60 percent of their missions.
The MSP is proud to boast that they have performed over
100,000 medevac missions. Trooper 2, located at Andrews Air Force Base in
Camp Springs, MD, does more than 1,000 medevac missions alone.
The MSP also conducts law enforcement, homeland security
and search and rescue assignments. The fleet is located at eight bases
throughout state, ranging from the Appalachian Mountains in the western part
of the state to the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast. Trooper 5, located in
the western reaches of the state, is unique in one respect; they are
permanently based outside the State of Maryland at the Cumberland Regional
Airport in Wiley Ford, WV.
In addition to state-of-the-art medical interior, the
aircraft are equipped with FLIR, GPS and Nightsun. All flight operations are
managed by a Syscom (communications center) command center located in
Baltimore. Syscom serves as the central dispatching center for all medevac
flights in the State of Maryland.
“When a ground resource requests a helicopter, there is
no doubt or confusion as to the response,” Hock said. “One call and one
facility handles it all.”
Throughout their history, the MSP has experienced three
fatal accidents. Two of the three accidents involved flights into
deteriorating weather. The crashes took the lives of six MSP troopers. After
these accidents, the MSP took a hard look at their operations and made
significant changes. A standard operating procedure contains weather
minimums that crews must abide by; currently these minimums are: daytime,
ceiling 600 feet, flight visibility two miles, and nighttime, ceiling 800
feet, flight visibility three miles.
In addition to instituting weather minimums, the command
maintains a full-time risk management section, consisting of a pilot,
maintenance inspector and flight paramedic. The risk management section
manages the command’s accident prevention program.
The MSP staff their aircraft with a pilot, who is either
a sworn trooper or a civilian, and a trooper-medic. According to Hock, the
sworn vs. civilian pilot issue has never been a problem.
“Generally, our so-called civilian pilots are retired
trooper-pilots or retired military,” he said. “Their sense of duty, honor
and commitment are every bit as ingrained as a sworn trooper.” In fact, Hock
wishes he could offer the civilian pilot a better career track.
“Unfortunately,” Hock laments, “we do not currently have a program in place
that allows our civilian pilots to progress to supervisor.” On the flip
side, Major Hock points out that they get a very experienced pilot. “Our
mission is very demanding, and scene work can be very dangerous,” he noted.
“I have the greatest confidence in the world in my pilots, and if there is a
problem at 200 feet on departure, my pilots have the skills and experience
to handle it.”
All trooper/flight paramedics must have, as a
pre-requisite for hire, certification as a Nationally Registered EMT-P and
three years of advanced life support (ALS) field experience. The potential
candidate must then meet the same requirements necessary to become a
Maryland State Trooper and attend the 24-week academy. Upon graduation, the
trooper is assigned to a field barracks for usually one to three years
before transfer to Aviation Command. According to Corporal Douglas Baralo, a
flight paramedic based at Trooper 2, and an eight-year MSP veteran, the
support of the paramedics is outstanding.
“Our current medical director, Dr. Douglas Floccare,
knows all his trooper/paramedics personally,” he said. “If there is an issue
or problem, we can all go to him for guidance. Our medical protocols are
cutting edge.” Corporal Baralo also notes that all paramedics attend yearly
training at “shock trauma.” “You simply cannot get that kind of learning and
experience anywhere,” he said.
For potential pilot candidates, the requirements are
2,000 rotary-wing hours as pilot-in-command and commercial/instrument rating
in helicopters. Civilian pilots do not attend the State Police Academy and
they do not become State Troopers.
Both Major Hock and Corporal Baralo point out that the
MSP program is such a success because of the outstanding support from all
segments of the community. Corporal Baralo states that the community has a
strong “ownership” feeling for the program. “I can’t tell you how many times
I have been approached while in uniform and been told of friend or relative
saved by our unit,” he said.
THE NASSAU COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT (NCPD)
The County of Nassau is a large, densely populated suburb located just east
of New York City. The Nassau County Police Department is made up of
approximately 1,600 officers and provides patrol services for most of the
county, as well as airborne law enforcement/medevac services for the entire
county.
The Nassau County Police Department currently operates a
fleet of three helicopters – one Bell 407 and two Bell 206L4 Long Rangers.
The unit is based at a hangar in Bethpage, NY, once the home of the famous
Grumman Aerospace “Ironworks.” In an area formerly graced by legendary
fighters such as the Wildcat, Hellcat and the F-14 Tomcat, the NCPD’s three
helicopters serve as the last permanently assigned aircraft in a region
called the “Cradle of Aviation.”
The Nassau County Police Air Bureau took delivery of
another Bell 407 in September, replacing one of the Long Rangers. The
commanding officer of the bureau, Sgt. Thomas Milton anticipates taking
delivery of a third Bell 407 next year.
“It will be nice for both the pilots and paramedics to
have a standardized fleet,” Sgt. Milton said. “All bells, whistles and
switches will be in the same place, and of course that helps for a safer
operation.”
The helicopters are operated by a sworn police
officer/pilot and sworn paramedics. In addition to being a paramedic, the
police officer/paramedic also performs the role of tactical flight officer
on law enforcement missions.
The bulk of their medevac work is on-scene rescue work.
This can present a particular challenge. Ralph Spinola, the Nassau County
unit’s current chief pilot, explains: “We train our pilots in-house to
become police pilots. Yes, they arrive with a commercial rotary-wing
license, but the demands of police flying and in particular on-scene medevac
work is enormous. The pilot is alone and without a co-pilot to assist.”
The County of Nassau is bordered on two sides by the Long
Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. Major ocean beaches are served by only
two parkways and summer beach traffic can be a nightmare. “Due to its
geography, the ocean beaches lend themselves to long ground transports.
Oftentimes, the helicopter just makes medical sense for the patient,”
Spinola said. The Nassau County Police Air Bureau performs approximately 400
medevac missions a year.
In addition, the closing of the United States Coats Guard
Air Station, Brooklyn, in 1998 has resulted in more air-sea rescues. All
agencies in the area, including the NYPD, Suffolk County and Nassau County,
have been handling more water assignments because of the lack of USCG
aviation resources.
The NCPD is very pleased with the Bell 407. Spinola notes
that the aircraft is perfect for their mission. “We need a fast, powerful,
cost effective aircraft to perform our law enforcement/ medevac role,” he
said. “The 407 is that aircraft.”
THE SOFTER SIDE OF AIRBORNE LAW ENFORCEMENT
Many of us are familiar with the infamous slogan, “death from above.” This
slogan has been used for years by our brave, heroic and courageous military
aviators while performing their dangerous flying missions around the world
defending our freedoms.
In airborne law enforcement, units perform a variety of
missions and assignments. It would be hard to think of more rewarding
missions than medevac. Perhaps “life from above” is an appropriate slogan
for these missions.
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Air Medicine & Machinery
Establishing the Medevac Mission
By Lisa A. Wright
Air Beat Magazine Editorial Director
In the US, there are an estimated 17,784 law enforcement
agencies spread out across the federal, state and local levels of
government. Of those, there are an estimated 350 units performing airborne
law enforcement missions. Of those ALEA member agencies, 34 aviation units
perform some type of helicopter or fixed-wing emergency medical service.
That means less than 10 percent of all police aviation agencies reported
that they perform medevac or emergency transport missions.
The term “medevac” is usually applied to an airplane or helicopter used as
an ambulance. This permits the rapid transport of seriously injured persons
from the scene of an accident to a hospital. The technique has its roots in
the establishment of the Australian Royal Flying Doctor Service, which was
founded in 1928 to bring doctors to patients and patients to hospitals from
the remote outback. In 1926, the US Army Air Corps used a converted airplane
to transport patients from Nicaragua to an Army hospital in Panama that was
150 miles away.
Inevitably, the immense military potential of this
practice was realized with the development of the helicopter. The US Army
pioneered this lifesaving medevac technique during the Korean War. They
established semi-permanent field hospitals immediately behind the front
lines, which allowed wounded soldiers to receive complete medical treatment
after only a short helicopter flight. This military tactic was later
popularized in the 1970s TV series M*A*S*H.
In 1966, the landmark National Academy of Science white
paper “Accidental Death and Disability: The Neglected Disease of Modern
Society” underscored the profound impact of death and disability caused by
injury, particularly in car crashes. This study contributed substantially to
the development of the modern EMS system and its trauma care subsystem in
the US. Its impact was compounded by the influence of returning military
units and military medical helicopter pilots discharged to law enforcement
and other public safety flying roles.
This soon led to the adaptation of military and public
safety helicopters to be used for the evacuation of injured civilians. The
Maryland State Police Aviation Command, which began in March 1970, became
the first non-military agency to transport a critically injured trauma
patient by helicopter, a service they continue to offer today. The first
civilian hospital-based medical helicopter service was established in 1972
at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Denver, CO.
By 1980, some 32 helicopter emergency medical services
(HEMS) programs with 39 helicopters were flying more than 17,000 patients a
year. By 1990, this grew to 174 services with 231 helicopters flying nearly
160,000 patients. Ten years later, 231 helicopter services with 400 aircraft
were flying over 203,000 patients each year. By 2005, 272 services operating
753 helicopters and 150 dedicated fixed-wing aircraft were in operation.
There are now approximately 500,000 helicopter and fixed-wing emergency
medical transports each year, according to the Association of Air Medical
Services.
While helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft play a vital
role in emergency transports, as mentioned, most law enforcement aviation
units are not dedicated EMS providers. But as first responders, law
enforcement crews may utilize equipment (long-line, hoist, litters, etc.) to
rescue injured persons and deliver them to a safe area or bring flight
medics to the accident scene.
Chief Pilot Phil Tilford of the Phoenix (AZ) Police
Department Air Support Unit explains that they have become one of the
busiest mountain rescue units in the country. In 1981, in cooperation with
the Phoenix Fire Department, the Air Support Unit began training to be able
to rescue hikers from the surrounding steep and mountainous terrain. Fire
personnel provide the medical services and are the rescue hoist operators.
The Air Support Unit, which purchased an Agusta A109E twin-engine helicopter
in 2005, extracts patients and flies to a safe area for reloading the
patient into ground transportation. “Only in extreme and immediate life
threatening situations will we transport the patient to an approved medical
facility by use of helicopter,” remarked Tilford.
Tilford further explains that the Air Support Unit chose
not to equip the new aircraft with installed and dedicated EMS gear, as that
would decrease the available payload for law enforcement missions. The
aircraft does have portable advanced life support (ALS) equipment that is
transported to rescue sites, and fire department personnel regularly train
with the unit’s pilots and TFOs to ensure safety, communication and proper
technique.
The primary focus of the California Highway Patrol’s (CHP)
Office of Air Operations is law enforcement missions, but their secondary
mission is to provide assistance to allied agency operations with SAR and
medical care and transportation, when available and appropriate.
In 2005, the CHP performed 6,873 searches, 140 rescues,
522 EMS missions and 499 patient transports, reports Captain K. R. Dittimus,
CHP Commander of Air Operations. The CHP has eight air operations units
located throughout the state. The placement of these units allows for
maximum efficiency and immediate response to incidents requiring CHP
airborne assistance. Currently, the department’s patrol fleet consists of 15
airplanes and 14 helicopters.
The CHP’s 11 Astar helicopters perform the full spectrum
of law enforcement duties in both urban and rural environments. Each
helicopter is equipped with a FLIR infrared/color CCD camera sensor system,
AeroComputer moving map, Spectrolab SX-16 Nightsun, satellite telephone,
450-pound capacity external hoist and 1000-pound cargo hook limit. In
addition to conducting search and rescue and external hoist missions, Astar
crews are capable and equipped to provide ALS patient care and medical
evacuation transport when called upon.
High Risks of Transport Medicine
Transport medicine is among the most complex arenas of
medicine and is characterized by the need to provide immediate access to
time-sensitive care for critically injured patients at the same time that
operations are conducted in hostile environmental conditions with limited
planning time. From 1972 through September 2002, when HEMS safety research
by Dr. Ira Blumen of the University of Chicago Aeromedical Network (UCAN)
was completed, HEMS had flown approximately 3,000,000 hours and transported
some 275 million patients. In that time, there were 166 crashes involving
HEMS with 183 fatalities.
The UCAN study found that while the number of crashes
each year had fluctuated, the number per 100,000 patients flown had dropped
from 17.36 in 1980 to 5.5 in 2001. The risk to patients, estimated over the
years of the study, is reported as a fatality rate of 0.76 per 100,000
patients. Recognizing that risk cannot be completely eliminated, it is
essential both for the public served and the pilots, nurses, paramedics,
physicians and other providers who deliver care that the environment be as
safe as possible.
To that end, the Association of Air Medical Services has
already initiated Vision Zero (www.visionzero.aams.org)
and joined the International Helicopter Safety Team (IHST,
www.ihst.org), led by the
American Helicopter Society (AHS), the Helicopter Association International
(HAI), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Transport Canada and the
ALEA to reduce helicopter accidents by 80 percent in the next 10 years.
These initiatives seek more effective methods to avoiding errors in complex
systems and accelerate the implementation of best practice standards.
Author note: A special thanks for information for this article provided by
the Association of Air Medical Services, the Phoenix Police Department Air
Support Unit, the California Highway Patrol and Jay Fuller, ALEA Safety
Staff.
Tips To Ensure Safe EMS Operations
Most medevac aircraft are modified aircraft with
lifesaving equipment on board, as well as trained medical personnel as part
of the aircrew. There are efforts law enforcement aviation units can make to
ensure that their medevac missions save lives rather than lose them:
-
Maintain Standards – Well defined, inclusive operating
standards, established by command/supervisory personnel and adhered to
religiously by crews, can go a long way to reducing mission-related pilot
decision error.
-
Train Hard – Single pilot medevac ops conducted with
sophisticated modern aircraft and flown in busy ATC environments present
one of the most complex, fast-paced operating environments possible.
Train, train, train. Know your equipment and your crew members intimately.
-
Define Responsibilities – Pilots make the flight
decisions; medical personnel make the patient decisions. Period. Ideally,
pilots should not even know the medical status of their passenger.
-
Be Conservative – Pilots must keep in mind that their
mission, ultimately, is to provide safe, sure transportation. All
decisions should be conservative. Pilots can cause greater injury. Further
time delays caused by flight deviations or diversions can make the
helicopter less suitable than a ground ambulance.
-
Equip and Prepare – If you are going to be operating in
known high-hazard environments (i.e.. night scene extractions), equip
yourself and take precautions. Use night vision goggles and have
specified, prescreened landing sites. Arm yourselves against known
hazards.
Despite the inherent dangers, air medical flight
operations remain a viable mission for many law enforcement aviation units
having rural jurisdiction. But these operations must be conducted with all
due restraint.
(Back to top)
Catching Crooks & Saving Lives
By Deputy Carlos Quezada
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Aviation Unit
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s
Emergency Operations Division Aviation Unit was assisting a local law
enforcement agency with a vehicle pursuit of a carjacking suspect, when the
pursuit went from the valley area up through winding roads that led to the
local mountains. The suspect eventually turned around and began to drive
back down the same road. Still, police vehicles pursued him quickly from
behind.
The carjacker traveled at a high rate of speed and subsequently drove off a
300-foot cliff. The suspect was ejected and found on the ground unconscious.
Suddenly, the Aviation Unit went from pursuing a suspect to sending its
medical helicopter to conduct a technical rescue mission for this
individual. There was a physician on duty that day that made every attempt
to save his life, despite the fact that officers on duty had been trying
only moments before to take his freedom.
It has been an evolutionary process for San Bernardino to become both law
enforcement and medevac-capable. The birth of the Aviation Unit goes back to
1972 when Terry Jagerson, previously a sergeant with the Los Angeles County
Sheriff’s Department, came in as a lateral and assumed the position of
lieutenant. He began his quest of forming an airborne law enforcement
division within the department with two Bell 47 helicopters purchased
through federal grant money.
During this era, the West End portion of the county had a
service search and rescue team run by a private organization and comprised
of EMT and paramedic volunteers. In the late 1970s, they began looking for a
new home. Jagerson acquired surplus B-model Hueys and brought the search and
rescue teams online. This was the inception of the county’s Air Rescue Team.
As time progressed, so did advancements in medical
equipment and procedures. Long-line extractions of victims from rugged
terrain were a common practice, but some issues arose during the early
periods. One example was the susceptibility of the medic and/or victim to
spin due to the rotor wash. In an incident seen on national television, a
medic spun at a rapid speed causing him to partially lose consciousness
during a short-haul.
The Aviation Unit subsequently purchased a Lucas Western
hoist with a working capacity of 600 pounds. Its advent presented increased
functionality and improved safety and control. A tag line was added to
attach to the hoist hook to decrease the chances of spinning during some
hoist operations/missions.
The advanced life support (ALS) medical equipment in use
by the medical crew includes a stokes litter with a backboard and straps,
blood pressure monitor, heart monitor with defibrillator, suction machine,
Sager splint for femur fractures, airway bag kits, IV bags and medications,
such as paralytics, sedatives, various advanced cardiac life support (ACLS)
meds and asthmatics. The helicopters can be configured to carry two
patients.
Throughout the years, the Air Rescue program has
undergone changes of its own. Currently, Dr. Jeff Grange is the medical
director of the team. He is an emergency room physician for Loma Linda
University Medical Center in Loma Linda, CA, and has earned the title of
Emergency Medical Services Director there, as well. Grange is also a reserve
deputy sheriff for the department. He has written the San Bernardino County
Sheriff’s Air Rescue Team Medical Treatment guidelines, which are protocols
utilized in the operation.
The team is also governed by protocols from the base
hospital, the local EMS authority Inland Counties Emergency Medical Agency (ICEMA),
which covers San Bernardino County, Mono County, and Inyo County, and the
California Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA). The Air Rescue
helicopters and private air ambulances are dispatched through the San
Bernardino County Fire Communications Center.
Before joining the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s
Department Air Rescue Team, there are minimum requirements that the
volunteers must meet. Physicians must have a minimum of two years experience
working in a critical care or emergency department within the previous three
years. Nurses must have two years of the same experience within the previous
five years. Paramedics must have a minimum of two years experience working
for an advanced life support (ALS) provider. Finally, EMTs must have five
years experience working full time for an ALS provider.
San Bernardino is comprised of different terrains, and
the aviation unit is equipped with the tools necessary for those challenges.
San Bernardino County is the largest county in the continental United
States. The county covers approximately 22,000 square miles of valley,
rugged desert and mountainous areas reaching as high as 11,500 feet. To
patrol such a varied expanse, the Aviation Unit has a fleet of aircraft
designed for various types of missions, including both law enforcement
patrol (narcotics surveillance, transporting officials, prisoner
extraditions) and medical patrol (fires, technical rescues, medical trauma
transports).
The agency’s fleet of aircraft consists of one Sikorsky
H-3, one Bell 212, two UH-1H Super Huey IIs, six Eurocopter Astar B3s, one
McDonald Douglas 500E, one Aero Commander Grand Renaissance, one Cessna 182
and one Cessna 207.
The Aviation Unit has 17 pilots, including a captain, one
lieutenant, two sergeants, eight mechanics, one corporal and one civilian
employee. There are seven tactical flight officers, four of which are EMTs/crewchiefs/hoist
operators. The volunteer Air Rescue team is comprised of seven medical
doctors, 15 registered nurses, 26 paramedics and seven EMTs for a total of
55 volunteers – 20 of these members are reserve deputy sheriffs.
Some of the missions performed are search and rescue,
body recoveries, downed planes, fall victims, vehicles driven over the sides
of mountains, traffic collisions on the roads and inter-facility hospital
transfers. The medics are equipped for Alpine conditions and carry packs in
case atmospheric conditions worsen and recovery of the victim and rescuer
becomes difficult in the mountainous areas, one of which is San Gorgonio
Mountain that has an altitude of approximately 11,500 feet.
When the unit responds to a rescue mission within the
county and the victim is a San Bernardino resident, there is no cost to him
or her. The taxes they have paid take care of the cost. There are times when
the unit is called upon to assist other counties that don’t have the luxury
of equipment or manpower. In these cases, the California Governor’s Office
of Emergency Services is contacted and the San Bernardino Aviation Unit is
given an OES number. The unit then performs the mission in the other county
and reimbursement is worked out between the agencies.
When conducting technical rescues or normal trauma
transports, the unit makes every attempt to limit on-scene time on the
ground to 10 minutes or less. The “golden hour” makes a difference between
life and death. But certain situations require more time for extrication
and/or extraction of victims.
The total team hours volunteers provided San Bernardino
County Sheriff’s Department in 2005 amounted to more than 13,200 hours. The
Air Rescue Team conducted a total of 338 missions, medically evaluated 289
persons and transported 286 injured subjects to local area hospitals/trauma
centers. They also assisted in 39 hoist rescues and five SWAT missions.
With all of these volunteers giving up their free time to
provide service to the people of the community, one can’t ask for a better
medical team to help in desperate situations that require the experience
they possess in emergency medicine and pre-hospital care.
(Back to top)
Dual Missions
Law Enforcement And Air Medical Operations
By Dr. Tania Glenn
Readiness Group International, LLC
Airborne law enforcement operators that also respond to
emergency medical calls encounter unique challenges. Namely, they must
balance the equally difficult tasks of flight operations and patient care.
The mission of law enforcement officers functioning as flight medics
fluctuates rapidly between taking down bad guys and taking care of the ill.
Not only must these rescuers change their mentality and focus during the
course of such a mission, they also must change their equipment, their
skills, their habits and their practices. This requires flexibility and fast
thinking.
Airborne law enforcement officers who are required to
begin patient care may be able to maintain some focus on the law enforcement
mission at hand. During this type of mission, however, patient care should
be considered the priority. This can be very difficult for police officers
to do, as law enforcement is typically their primary role, and being
required to refrain from police activities can feel foreign and very
uncomfortable.
At the same time, the transformation of flight officer to flight medic
during the course of a mission takes a significant personnel resource out of
the operation. The result of this is the potential loss of a set of eyes and
ears that are able to focus on aviation, thereby requiring other crew
members to increase their attention and focus. All crew members must be
aware of this change in dynamics and able to adjust to the difference.
Another significant challenge for flight officers who serve as medics lies
in the fact that the vast majority of the patients they care for are
critically ill or injured. If ground units triage well, aviation resources
are not called for stable patients with good survivability. Traumatically
ill or injured patients may be very challenging, as they present numerous
medical complications and may require difficult or invasive procedures to
save their lives. As the seconds tick away in the golden hour of a
critically injured patient’s life, a great deal of pressure is placed on the
law enforcement flight medic to implement difficult yet vital interventions.
Further complications lie in the types of patients cared for by law
enforcement officers functioning as flight medics. Sometimes the patient is
a child, a known victim or another law enforcement officer. Frequently, in
the emergency room, “cops and kids get worked on the hardest.” While all
patients get the best care possible, it is no secret that police officers
and children who are critically injured increase the desire of staff members
to give their all. This is due to the emotional situation that this type of
patient brings. No one likes to give up on a cop or a kid – plain and
simple.
For a flight officer who is a medic, the task of treating
a fellow serviceman is one of the honorable acts of service. While most
airborne officers serving as medics would not want it any other way, this
responsibility is significant, and the impact can be difficult to manage.
Overcoming the lasting impressions, memories and feelings associated with
caring for a critically injured officer can require assistance.
(Back to top)
Sky Knight
40 Years of Aerial Law Enforcement
By Lisa A. Wright
Air Beat Editorial Director
Located 23 miles southeast of Los Angeles, the City of
Lakewood, CA initiated the first day and night law enforcement helicopter
patrol program in the nation in 1966. Helicopters and aircraft had
specialized law enforcement uses before that time, but Sky Knight was the
first to use helicopters as “patrol cars in the sky.”
In its 40 years, Sky Knight has pursued criminals,
rescued victims and responded to disasters. When terrain or buildings have
isolated ground units, Sky Knight has always been on top of the situation,
coordinating the movement of men and equipment. Sky Knight spawned dozens of
aerial patrol programs worldwide and employed the first female law
enforcement pilot (Monica McIntyre) in the nation, a distinction honored by
the Smithsonian Institution.
In September of this year, local city and law enforcement
officials celebrated the program that began as an 18-month experiment four
decades ago with a reception at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's hangar. The
Airborne Law Enforcement Association honored the program for its safety and
commitment to airborne operations with the presentation of a Board
Proclamation by ALEA President Dan Schwarzbach and Western Region Director
Gregg Weitzman. ALEA Board member Barbara Tweedt also was on hand to
represent Schweizer Aircraft. “The Sky Knight Program is a pioneer in the
field of airborne law enforcement, and we owe them a debt of gratitude for
making it possible for us to do the job we love,” said Schwarzbach.
Sponsored by the City of Lakewood and the Los Angeles
County Sheriff’s Department, the test program was originally funded by a
grant from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. Neighboring cities
soon saw Sky Knight’s successes and offered to pay for this resource to help
offset costs, a partnership that remains today. Currently, the cities of
Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Lakewood and Paramount share in the $860,000
expense of operating and maintaining Sky Knight’s three Schweizer 300C
helicopters, which are based at Long Beach Airport.
With 107,000 hours of flight time since 1966 (about 1,800
patrol hours a year), the Sky Knight program is completely integrated in the
Lakewood Sheriff Station’s tactical operations. Sky Knight pilots are
Lakewood employees, and the Los Angles Sheriff’s Department provides deputy
observers through Lakewood’s law enforcement contract. Lakewood is the lead
agency overseeing operation of the program on behalf of the participating
cities.
“Our primary mission is ground unit support and officer
safety,” explains Sky Knight Chief Pilot Wes Pearson, who has been with the
program since 1976. “We will respond when possible to any call we can assist
– backup to a traffic stop, silent burglar alarm, barricaded suspects, or
crimes in progress. We will check the perimeter of buildings and roofs or
watch for a possible suspect attempting to flee on foot or in a vehicle.
“A secondary mission is patrol of inaccessible areas such
as riverbeds, flood control channels, power line and railroad rights of way
for illegal activities. Our major benefit is that we can provide a rapid
response for our service area; ground units can depend on us for quick
backup,” Pearson said.
Sky Knight expanded its initial 9.5-square-mile patrol
area in 1967 to include the entire region served by the Lakewood Sheriff’s
Station. Since then, Sky Knight has flown virtually every day.
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