Thanks to the support of my lovely wife I have been able to establish a tactical medicine program here in Toledo.

The Tactical Officers of the Toledo Police Department's Special Enforcement Division had no medical support less than two years ago. Due to the forward thinking of the command officers, open mindedness of the street officers, and the dedication of the Emergency Medicine Residents at Saint Vincent Mercy Medical Center that has all changed.

Currently there are 2 Attending Physicians, 7 Resident Physicians, and 1 Officer/Paramedic who are all fully capable of providing emergent medical treatment to officers, victims, suspects, or bystanders at any tactical incident here in Toledo.

The dedication that everyone involved has shown is quite impressive. All of the physicians are volunteers who believe that providing this service to the officers and the community is the right thing to do. The countless hours that they have devoted already goes far above and beyond the call of duty. Imagine the commitment of the officer/paramedic. He not only must maintain his tactical training, he must also stay sharp with medical skills and knowledge. Without his dedication to this program it would not have been possible.

We made the front page of the Sunday paper on March 25th, 2001. Thanks to everyone involved. Your hard work and time committed are really starting to pay off. Click below for a link to the article.

While everyone has been very busy I did manage to do a ride along recently. Many people have asked me what it's like when the officers do raids. Currently the SED is doing over 700 raids per year. Here is a very brief photo chronology of a raid.

This is inside the raid wagon. All of the officers have been briefed on the location, suspects, and potential hazards for the particular location where the warrant is to be served. All of the officers are ready to jump out the back of the van as soon as it comes to a stop. Once that van stops things happen very fast.

This is the officers getting ready to make entry. Sometimes distraction devices are used to confuse the suspects. If you look closely the officer on the front porch has the ram and is getting ready to forcibly open the front door.

Relaxing on the front porch after a job well done. Mission accomplished (notice suspects in custody inside front door) and no one got hurt. It doesn't get any better than this! Wouldn't this make for a great beer commercial!

I recently had an article published in Tactical EMS which is the publication of the International Tactical EMS Association. A lot of time and effort went into developing the article and I am very proud of the final result. I am already starting to get feedback from TEMS providers across the nation about the article. The links below will take you to the cover page of the publication and show you the text of the article. Click on the pages to see them in readable format.