PERRYSBURG, Ohio — Tactical medics are a special breed of police officers. Beyond the standard police skills, they also carry EMT training.
WTOL 11 was the only local news station to get a deeper look into the program and just how that training works during a scenario Thursday.
The tactical medics are an important part of the Toledo Police Department.
The group has been working with TPD for about four months. Their training includes working alongside Toledo Fire & Rescue Department and Mercy Health to perfect the skills they need in the field.
In this particular scenario, someone's been shot twice on the second floor of a home.
In the simulation, it's still an active scene, so tactical medics need to get them out and safely into an ambulance.
"It obviously improves the time care is given, and that's to anybody," said Sgt. Kenneth Krabill with TPD's tactical medic program.
The training gives police and fire time to work closely and figure out how they can get someone from the scene to a trauma bay in a hospital as quickly as possible.
"Biggest thing is just the communication and learning how to work together and that's what we're working on," Krabill said.
One of the hardest parts, the tactical medics and Toledo fire EMTs say, is loading the victim in the back of a police car, and getting them out and transferred to an ambulance.
"We'd have people in the back holding up one end of the body and a person on the other side holding onto the other end of that body, that also reduces care that can be given in the back of that vehicle," Krabill said.
That's why Toledo Police Chief George Kral and EMS Medical Director Nick Sauber were at Toledo City Council Tuesday, asking for approval to get an MRAP.
It's a large armored military vehicle to bring trained medical professionals right up to the scene.
"From the time a person is injured to the time we have to get to medical care, that is that crucial moment where we have those seconds-to-minutes injuries to stop bleeding, to open an airway," Sauber said.
Krabill, who is in charge of the tactical medical unit, believes the benefit of an MRAP is shown in their training.
"Overall, it's going to protect us. It's going to protect the public it's going to protect," Krabill said.
City council had a lot of questions about putting a military vehicle on the street.
A couple members are worried about the look and size of the MRAP.
TPD says that size is what will help them safely work to treat people inside.