CRUNCH

The 2015 Paris terrorist attacks changed the face of policing internationally with the realisation that those on the scene had to not only deal with violent offenders, but seriously injured people as well. In 2016 Queensland Police Officer Dustin Osborne moved over to the Active Armed Offender Project Team that looked at developing appropriate skills and tactics to stop armed violent offenders and provide support for their victims.

“I became aware of the need to move forward with this and in 2017 instigated a practical tactical first aid training package,” says Dustin. “I didn’t create anything new. It was a matter of concentrating on the skills practiced in military operations. Everything we do in Tactical First Aid is very basic. We don’t teach people to be doctors and we don’t diagnose anything, but we’re powering ahead with the current skill sets and the equipment we are using.” preventable deaths from occurring,” says Dustin. “We understand we can’t save everyone and there are things well outside our skill set, but we can do a lot for people in a very short space of time to stop them dying.”

The intention was to formalise the competencies, many of which already existed and after a four-month period of development, the three and a half hour Tactical First Aid training program was rolled out to all members of the Queensland Police Service. Within 12 months more than 10,000 officers had been trained and equipped in the skills.

Dustin was working in the Fortitude Valley precinct of Brisbane which has a reputation for being a tough neighbourhood.

“We found standard first aid isn’t operationally relevant and we needed something which looked at high level trauma,” he recalls. “In the ‘Valley’ we were not treating bee stings or kids drinking paint, we were dealing with people being violently attacked.” There were parallels that could be drawn between injuries caused by violent behaviour and those arising from serious motor vehicle accidents. Dustin was able to recognise them.

“Improving life expectancy is a major factor as well, so instead of standing around, we can now make a difference,” he says. “I used to use the term ‘we are the best dressed bystanders’, because we turn up with all the gear to do 99 per cent of the stuff, but we didn’t have the means to help people suffering physical trauma. With the TFA program, now we do.”

The training is based on the principles of military field first aid programs and after examining evidence-based research which was conducted on modern conflicts in the Middle East, the Queensland Police actually moved away from traditional first aid assessment protocols.

“The program’s casualty assessments are designed to identify the biggest causes of death, and we can then fix them in order of lethality,” explains Dustin. “We quickly assess patient’s level of consciousness and we can then do circulation checks, then also check for head and spinal injuries. We know the