Contact was attempted with all 50 state police agencies by telephone and electronic mail. Officers at each agency were guided to complete a 15-question Internet-based survey. Descriptive statistics of the responses were performed.
Attempts were made to contact all 50 states, and 46 surveys were completed (92%response rate). Most surveys were filled out by police leadership or individuals responsible for medical programs. The median agency size was 725 (interquartile range 482 to 1,485) state police officers, with 695 (interquartile range 450 to 1,100) patrol vehicles (鈥渟quad cars鈥?. Thirty-three percent of responding agencies (15/46) reported equipping police vehicles with automated external defibrillators. Of these, 53%(8/15) equipped less than half of their fleet with the devices. Regarding emergency medical training, 78%(35/45) of state police agencies reported training their officers in automated external defibrillator usage, and 98%(44/45) reported training them in CPR.
One third of state police agencies surveyed equipped their vehicles with automated external defibrillators, and among those that did, most equipped only a minority of their fleet. Most state police agencies reported training their officers in automated external defibrillator usage and CPR. Increasing automated external defibrillator deployment among state police represents an important opportunity to improve first responder preparedness for cardiac arrest care.