Posted: 2/20/2003 6:09:42 AM EDT
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I am curious as to how many SWAT/SOT teams have medics on their teams that are actually operators or have comissions. I understand that there is a wide variety of involvement of medics with their perspective teams. I am new to this forum so forgive me if this has been discussed before. MadMack |
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A local department went to the firehouses and recruited a few guys to put in for the area SRT team. The team covers numerous juridictions in the suburbs of a nearby large city. The paramedics were sent to the police academy, have peace officer status, and train/respond with the SRT. We have taken it a step further. I am buddies with one of the guys that has done this. He is currently in the process of being phased in as the medic on our team. He has trained with us numeous times, responded on several all-outs and will be looking to get deputized before too long. This is the first time I have heard of this being done on a fed team. It's a lot better (more efficient) than trying to train one of us to be a decent medic. BTW, he's armed, in the stack and ready for action. He may not always have a long gun or may be (obviously) equipped different from the rest of us, but he clears the house and shares the operational responsibilities with the rest of us. |
| Thanks for the replies. We are fortunate here. We are in a system like Switchback is refering to. Three of us have been trained, certified,and armed plus we train 16 hours a month with our team. They have even sent us out of state to a few schools. I have asked other places how they deal with the paramedic issue and I have found some teams don't have them. |
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One of the teams that I serve on has an operator that is trained to EMT-B, but he has never touched a patient. He is an element leader and acts as the Liason to the paramedics of the Tactical Medical Support Team (TMST). The TMST medics are all experienced ALS providers with an average of 10 years of EMS experience. The medics are not LEOs and at this time we are not armed, but that question is being seriously looked at |