Page 40 - October 2019 FOP

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ing. The offender opened up on Wasny and he was bleeding out. He pulled a tourniquet from his LEMAR kit and applied it himself to the wound. Other officers applied additional tourniquets from their LEMAR kits and quickly rushed him to Christ Hospital. And saved his life.
Chicago Police Officers have been taking LEMARkable ac- tion for the past few years. Nearly 6,000 officers have been LE- MAR-trained, and applications – many of them lifesaving – are taking place two and three times per week.
“Our officers have the proper equipment and training and they have the confidence to use it,” commented Sergeant Brian Berkowitz, who leads the LEMAR training program. “It gives officers the opportunity to take some action when they can. They have a tool to save or mitigate loss of life on the scene and are able to do everything they can at the point of the wound.”
Wasny’s survival reverberated throughout the city, and es- pecially with Chicago Police Foundation (CPF) Chair John Robak. After exhaling along with the rest of the city over not losing an officer who has served for 16 years, Robak was grate- ful for the Chicago business community coming together to provide many of those 6,000 with LEMAR kits.
Perhaps the sound of auctioneer Vincent Zaffarano con- vincing attendees at the CPF’s annual True Blue Event to do- nate another $100 to fund another LEMAR kit reverberated as well. Patrons gave enough to buy 500 kits at the 2018 gala as part of more than $100,000 raised to support the Chicago Po- lice. The fifth annual True Blue Event will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel on Nov. 2, when the business community will come together with a lot to celebrate, especially the survival
Chicago Police Foundation Chair John Robak addresses the more than 750 members of the Chicago business community who attended the 2018 True Blue Event.
of Officer Wasny.
“I felt an incredible sense of pride when I learned about the
officer being able to save his own life,” Robak acknowledged. “It gave me hope that maybe during some of the trying times the past couple of years, we have stayed true to our mission. Of course, saving a life is of the highest priority, and I am proud of the things we have done to make a difference for the Chicago Police Department.”
In its five years, the CPF has built up its mission to provide supplementary resources to help with reducing crime. The lat- est initiative has the CPF in the process of donating four util- ity TAC vehicles for search and rescue. The Foundation also is working to provide a motorcycle trailer to give CPD motors a vehicle to transport bikes when going to events out of town.
Additionally, the CPF has increased its focus of advancing technology to help reduce crime and is working on ways to support police officers in their efforts to improve community relations. The department’s patrol division has reached out to the Foundation to assist with that effort.
And the CPF has recently added another pillar to its mis- sion by supporting officer mental health and wellness. This has included sponsoring a speaker series for the department and supporting the training of adequate resources. One of the speakers addressed “breach points,” stressors at the work- place and at home that impinge on mental health.
All of the above and especially the use of technology and success of the LEMAR kits inspired Verizon to once again sign on as a title sponsor for the 2019 True Blue Event. Michael Wood, Verizon’s director of sales for the public sector, noted how his company’s mission aligns with the CPF’s to provide equipment and training to give first responders the support they need to protect their community.
“It’s pretty cool to see how donating a reasonable sum of money can have such a large outcome on somebody’s life like the way they have invested in those kits,” Wood added. “It’s inspiring that everybody believes in the same mission and the work the CPD does to help the police improve our communi- ty. It makes me proud to see how technology is changing the curve on some of the crime trends and making us a safer and more appealing city.”
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Support from Verizon and a number of other companies