The non-profit, Cops Direct, has provided emergency supplies for police at Dallas College. The donation includes seven full bags of supplies, one for each campus, and 150 rescue kits which can be carried in police cars.
"This has been a great tool for us, it's definitely a force-multiplier," says Dallas College Police Assistant Chief Gabriel Galvez. "With as many campuses we serve throughout the DFW area, we cover seven campuses and satellites in five counties, this equipment is beneficial for us, especially our officers and security officers to provide life-saving care. It's not 'if,' it's 'when.'"
Aaron Negherbon, the founder of Cops Direct, says police are typically the first to arrive at an emergency, so the supplies can help them ensure a person's survival until firefighters and paramedics can provide treatment or take the person to the hospital.
"Innocent people, children, teachers, these instruments enable law enforcement to stabilize those patients while they're still trying to take care of the threat," he says.
Cops Direct is based in McKinney but now works with police departments in 35 states. More information about the organization is available here, and donations can be made through their website as well.
Negherbon says the organization works with each department to determine what is needed in equipment bags. He says Cops Direct can often provide equipment departments cannot afford to include in their own budgets.
"A rural department may not need as much tactical equipment as they need for wilderness response, farmland response or industrial accident response. You don't need that in Downtown Dallas," he says.
The bags for Dallas College include surgical gloves, face shields, tourniquets, shears to cut away clothing, compression bandages and tape.
"We're able to help save lives," says Galvez. "We're a college, but we also have high school kids and a daycare as well."
Galvez says officers receive training on how to use any medical equipment, saying Dallas College Police cars also carry automated external defibrillators. He says the supply bags highlight how the job of a police officer has grown.
"We're 911 now. Times have changed," he says. "We're doing everything. We're mental health peace officers, we're EMS, we provide law enforcement."
Negherbon says many people have become "desensitized" to hearing about mass shootings, but his group's work aims to provide equipment for police but also peace of mind for families.
"It's good students and families know in a setting like the Dallas College District, their children can go to a learning institution where that protection is exponentially greater, the preparedness of law enforcement is exponentially greater," he says.
He says the bags have instructions printed on them for the average person to understand, so in a mass casualty response, he says police will be able to give them to civilians to use immediately when officers may be spread thin.
