Nine Tulsa Police Officers To Graduate EMT Program

A new class of emergency medical technicians will graduate next month from Tulsa Community College's EMS program, and nine of the graduates will be Tulsa Police Officers.

The police officer EMT program is a unique partnership between TPD and TCC, and includes the chance for clinical experience.

So the next time you see that EMSA ambulance or fire truck, there may be a Tulsa Police Department EMT trainee on board.

Now when police officers get to the scene before EMSA or firefighters, they can begin the medical care process.

Tulsa Police Officer Charles Ramsey is one of nine police officers in TCC's current class of emergency medical technicians.

"We do a full semester just like any other EMT, we are going through labor and delivery, we're going through all the bells and whistles. We're not focusing just on trauma," Ramsey said.

The training is part classroom and part clinical; actually, riding along on an EMSA ambulance or on a fire truck as an EMT.

"The chances of us having to do EMS at a fire scene are pretty high, and they're gonna be right in the middle of that," said Tulsa Fire Captain Stan May.

In fact, there are emergency situations that Fire and EMSA cant get to until the police have deemed it safe, so a police officer with medical training - in those instances - could be a life saver.

This is nothing new for EMSA; they've been helping train medical personnel from around the country and from several foreign countries for years, but this is, they say, kind of special.

"It's exciting for us to get to train one of our own from here in town, that we are gonna work with and build a relationship with and see on scenes," said Scott Williams of EMSA.

The program is voluntary for Police officers, and as I said, there are nine in this current class. The future of the program and additional training to ensure the officers maintain proficiency are still under discussion, but everyone seems to agree it's good for public safety, and for developing relationships among first responders.