The Winkler Police Service is launching a new unit that will make the most of the unique skills of one of its members.
Prior to joining the department two years ago, Cst. Jadyn Martens spent several years employed as a paramedic, and he’s maintained his certification in that field.
Now he’s heading up the creation of WPS’ first Emergency Medical Support Unit, which will be able to provide medical care to trauma victims, officers on general patrol, and the regional tactical team as needed.
“I worked at Boundary Trails for six years full time as a primary care paramedic, and early on in this hiring process [with Winkler Police] I told the chief that I was interested in developing something along these lines,” Martens shared.
With a few years as an officer now under his belt, Martens returned to the idea earlier this year, making a pitch for funding from the provincial Criminal Property Forfeiture program to purchase emergency medical equipment he can bring with him when out on patrol.
The department received about $23,000 as a result, which has allowed them to purchase things like a mobile defibrillator, airway adjuncts, and IV equipment. Moving forward, it’s expected this initiative will cost the department approximately $1,000 a year in supplies, insurance, and certification fees.
It’s not unusual for police officers to be the first on the scene of an accident or other event involved injuries.
“And it’s not uncommon that there’s a large wait time for the paramedics,” noted Martens. “So it will be good to have, when I’m working, at least one person able to treat emergencies prior to their arrival.”
All police officers carry basic first aid kits with them to render emergency care—applying tourniquets or bandages and whatnot—but Martens, with his paramedic training, will be able to do much more to stabilize a patient.
“Seconds can matter,” he said. “My intention with this program is that it will just take those core [police first aid] principles and expand upon them and use the paramedic scope to enhance things.”
“It’s a unique set of skills that he has,” observed Chief Ryan Hunt. “So to be able to incorporate that into what we do, I think, is a great fit and a unique opportunity to provide life-saving abilities to the public when we are on scene, and also for our officers if it’s required.
“The response times are pretty good,” Hunt added of how quickly paramedics are able to arrive in many situations, “but there’s times where we’ve had to wait awhile, and you just never know what you’re going to be faced with when you arrive on scene.”
Martens is also eager to take some work off of his fellow officers’ shoulders, especially in a potentially high-risk situations where it wouldn’t be safe to send a paramedic in just yet.
“If there’s a call where the tactical team has to go out, then I could be there in some capacity,” he said. “We have members that are trained a little higher medically on the tac. team, but they’re wearing a lot of hats, those guys, so to be able to take that off their plates … now they can focus on keeping this person safe and I can be worrying about making sure everyone’s treated.”
Martens is still waiting on a few pieces of medical equipment while also drafting policies that will outline how this will all work, but the plan is to have the unit up and running sometime this fall.
As far as they know, this will be the first program of its kind, possibly in all of Manitoba.
The Winnipeg Police Service has something somewhat similar, known as the Tactical Emergency Support Unit, where paramedics work alongside police officers in tactical situations. But those paramedics are not also trained police officers.
“There are police officers that were paramedics, but I don’t think any of them have kept their license to be able to be a sworn officer and function in that role as well,” Martens said. “So we’re kind of pioneering something here a little bit, and we are learning as we go.”
