Do Police-Paramedics exist?

Can a Police Officer-Paramedic work within the policing environment?

  • Yes or maybe

    Votes: 20 74.1%

  • No

    Votes: 7 25.9%
  • Total voters
    27
The National Park Service (NPS) has park police that are dually qualified as emt's, and paramedics.

I do think there could be a little conflict of interest, especially if illegal activity was what got the patient hurt to begin with (not uncommon). How would you feel if you got a citation for crimes you admitted to in answers to assessment questions?
 
Davis County Utah has ALS response provided by deputy sheriffs. Fire department provides BLS ambulance service and the deputy/paramedic rides in if necessary.

Gretna, Louisiana has police officer/paramedics on ambulances.

In Texas, the Highland Park DPS (expensive suburb of Dallas) does fire/police/EMS. 24/48 schedule with 8 hours of the shift on police duties and the remaining 16 on fire/EMS.

Several of the Minneapolis/St. Paul police departments do BLS first response.

When they existed as separate departments, the Austin Park Police and Austin Airport Police had first responders and EMTs. The Travis County Park Rangers and Lower Colorado River Authority Rangers (Austin, Texas area) also do BLS first response.
 
MMiz said:
I think many departments will have sworn officers that are also trained as EMS/Paramedics. Especially in competitive positions, it looks good on a resume.

What I think you're looking for is a full time LEO that also regularly responds to EMS calls as an ALS provider.
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Suffolk County, NY has a few LEOs that do exactly that.
 
Cottage Grove, Minnesota uses LEO/Paramedics.
 
Maryland uses Paramedic/State Troopers for their helicopter service. I bet it would be quite fun to have dual certification
 
Greenberg police in Westchester NY do that
 
I know this is kind of a old post but Maricopa county in Arizona has sheriffs that are also paramedics. They wear vests and on the top it say sheriff and on The bottom it says Medic. I think it would be fun to work as both to. But only certain places allow it, who knows it may become a bigger thing in the future.
 
public safety officer

There is a city in northern Calif. That officers are P.O.S.T trained in law enforcement, have an emt cert, and have completed fire academy! Sweet!!! Did I mention their pay is good.
 
gruntdoc said:
There is a city in northern Calif. That officers are P.O.S.T trained in law enforcement, have an emt cert, and have completed fire academy! Sweet!!! Did I mention their pay is good.
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I think you're referring to Sunnyvale DPS. Their folks spend half their time doing fire and half doing law enforcement. When out on patrol, they have turnouts in the trunk and when on a fire unit, they have their duty gear with them as well. It would probably cost them more if they were to split into distinct roles...
 
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My EMT instructor is a CHP officer and a paramedic.
He works on the CHP helo, he responds to rescue calls, MVA's, and major traumas which require the helicopter for transport a lot, but also fulfills some law enforcement duties as well.

He told us that the CHP used to incorporate EMT training into the CHP academy. Every CHP officer used to be trained as an EMT-B. They don't anymore. However he received his Paramedic cert, and gets to do some cool stuff with CHP.
 
CBPs BORSTAR units are the best example I can think of in terms of having a good balance LEO/EMT-P. But they also work in a pretty specialized operational environment where most suspects they come in contact with are likely experiencing some sort of medical emergency, and in a remote area.
 
My dad is a LEO and was on SWAT for numerous years. I know for a fact that they had a doctor who would go on the call outs with them for medical standby ONLY. I also know that some SWAT teams around different states have firefighter medics on SWAT for medical standby. Also fed's have police medics CBP and FBI are the only I can think of right now. So I would say yes police medics do exist.
 
CHP used to require officers to go through an EMT-B crash course (It was more like an EMR/first responder course), up until about 5 years ago or so. If I recall correctly, they weren't eligible to take the NREMT or get their state cert. Now it's optional.
 
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EpiEMS said:
Based on the "Massachusetts Ambulance Service List" from the Mass Department of Public Health, that's probably the ambulance for the Massachusetts State Police Academy. Reference page 24 of the "Massachusetts Ambulance Service List". They're licensed as a BLS service, it looks like.
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That it is, quite the upgrade from the old suburban they used to run out of.
 
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