Officers Trained, Napa Police Cars Now Carry AEDs

NAPA, CA — More than 400,000 people suffer cardiac arrests outside of a hospital setting every year in the United States, and less than 10 percent survive, according to the American Heart Association.

The Napa Police Department is aiming to improve those odds for local residents by outfitting every marked police car and many unmarked police vehicles that detectives drive with automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

Police officers were have been trained to use them by the Napa Fire Department in August and September.

"Police Officers often arrive first to medical aid calls, and the AED units are expected to help improve survival rates for victims, who were otherwise treated by officers using conventional CPR," according to a Police Department statement. "AED equipment affords officers a critical resource for rendering emergency medical aid in those situations where seconds count."

A total of 35 AEDs have been deployed, with 31 purchased by the city, and the remaining four donated by Richard Walton, a member of the Queen’s Heart Safe Program Steering Committee.