Page 35 - August 2017

Not eight hours of PowerPoint
As summer storms lurked outside on a steamy July Thursday, the CPD training staff of Ralph Cruz, Dallas Burright, Casey Ciner, Mike Wilocki, Tom Walsh, Dan Bin- fa and Louis Luna led a gathering of officers through a combination of classroom instruction, hands-on practice and then intense scenarios which tested each cop’s ability to assess and treat injuries.
Very quickly, it became clear that the training staff fo- cuses on positive reinforcement and guidance to help the officers make the best decisions and use correct tech- niques when applying a tourniquet, quick-clot gauze or other tools contained in LEMAR kits.
The goal is to create proficiency by making sure that officers understand the outline for where, when and how to perform what can often be immediate critical care on someone wounded by gunfire or hurt in some other se- rious way. The training is voluntary, but approximately half of the department across the city has taken part in the eight-hour LEMART. Word of mouth, as much as anything, is spurring participation that lands an average of 15 offi- cers in classes which are usually held three times a week.
Many newer officers receive LEMART during their time in the academy, as 6th District partners Jeremiah Pentek and Robert Gleich did. They were back for a refresher to stay sharp, even though the pair put the skills into action to help a fellow officer hit by a gunshot in the hand earlier this year.
“I think every officer should get the training because if that ever happened to me, I would hope the first person
there knew what we have learned from this training,” Gle- ich said.
Pentek and Gleich, as many officers have, put togeth- er their own LEMAR kits filled with potentially life-saving supplies they purchased online to be prepared for what- ever might happen. The training brings together triage skills and how to use the medical kits to the best of an of- ficer’s ability.
Using training dummies, officers assessed and prac- ticed sealing chest wounds. They practiced tourniquet placement on each other to prove proficiency to the in- structors. And, in the most dynamic part of the day’s activ- ities, the officers were placed into multi-faceted scenarios which tested their knowledge and abilities in a number of ways.
“It’s not eight hours of PowerPoint,” Burright said.
The training has paid off in the real world. Chicago police officers have used LEMAR-related kits at least 17 times to treat someone suffering from a serious wound or injury. The unpredictability of when an officer might be called upon to provide critical medical treatment is part of why the Chicago Police Foundation has been leading the charge to put a LEMAR kit in the hands of every officer. Ev- ery $100 donation provides one individual trauma aid kit to a LEMAR-trained officer, and the foundation presented the first 400 of the 2,000 kits that it plans to donate during the next four years to academy graduates in October 2016.
“Our mission was founded on providing support that will help Chicago Police Officers patrolling the streets of
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