In shooting’s wake, Fort Worth police plan to add medical officers

When the call of “officer down” went out on the radio on the afternoon of March 15, officer Brandi Kamper was among those who came running.

After arriving at what was still an active shooting scene, Kamper, a tactical medical officer, was escorted by a Special Response team into the “hot zone” to help treat Pearce, said Cpl. Tracey Knight, a police spokeswoman.

Pearce had been gunned down by a suspect in a dense thicket in west Fort Worth, and other officers had begun treatment using trauma kits.

But, Knight said, Kamper “is a tactical medic so her medical training is far more extensive.”

Pearce was stabilized and carried by officers to a helicopter ambulance, which rushed him to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, where he underwent surgery for multiple gunshot wounds. He remains hospitalized in critical condition.

Kamper had previously used her training to work as a tactical medic officer for the Fort Worth Police Department, but the Tactical Medical Unit that she was assigned to had been shelved last year.

Since Pearce’s shooting, Police Chief Fitzgerald has decided to reinvest in the Tactical Medical program.

Fitzgerald was out of town and unavailable for comment, but Knight said that under his plan, each of the city’s five divisions will be assigned at least one full-time patrol officer that is trained and certified as a tactical medic. Those officers will also be certified trainers, responsible for keeping all patrol officers within their division trained, medical kits fully stocked and available to assist with any high-risk operations within their division.

Knight said Fitzgerald hopes to one day to partner with JPS for funding and grant opportunities for the program.

Mayor Betsy Price is among those praising the planned expansion.

“The expansion of this program to each patrol division will be a valuable, and life-saving, asset to our community as the Fort Worth Police Department strives to continually protect and serve our citizens,” she said. “We must continue to find ways to support our officers and citizens with valuable life-saving training and techniques.”

A new type of training

In late 2010, Kamper, a former Army nurse who served a tour in Kuwait, was among a handful of Fort Worth police officers who had sought permission to test a new and innovative tactical medical training program on a group of new recruits.

The training impressed then-Police Chief Jeff Halstead. Although budgetary cuts had left little funding for equipment, Halstead said the officers used a significant amount of their own money to supply police recruits with medical equipment.

Eventually, federal funding was used to purchase equipment.

But it was the mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in July 2012 that Halstead said prompted him do more. During a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, James Holmes opened fire, killing 12 people and injuring 70 others.

In 2013, Halstead moved a sergeant and two officers — including Kamper — to the training academy to create the Tactical Med Unit, which was tasked with teaching officers how to use trauma kits in the field and later accompanying specialized units like SWAT on high-risk operations.

“It was critical to train every uniformed police officer because one of the lessons learned in Aurora was they had no medical response when there were still active shooters on scene,” Halstead said this week.

Halstead said the training provided to officers was an amazing success.

“I think when I retired our count was more than 13 lives saved,” he said.

Unit members also accompanied tactical teams like SWAT on high-risk operations, responding to 289 such operations from September 2014 through June 2015, according to Police Department statistics.

Tac Medic Unit dismantled

In October — before Fitzgerald became chief — the Tactical Med Unit was dismantled and its three members returned to other duties.

Assistant Chief Abdul Pridgen said the officers had only been “on-loan” to the training academy and that the unit was disbanded because of concerns that patrol was short-staffed.

“When I took over Training, in the middle of 2015, I recognized the on-loan persons were still assigned to Training. I inquired about their responsibilities and realized that they were performing ancillary duties not related to training officers in Tac Med,” Pridgen said in an email. “At that time I made the decision, with the input of Executive Staff, to take them off loan.”

The training, however, continued, police officials say.

Kamper continued to teach new recruits and even Pearce, himself a medic, helped on occasion.

To date, more than 1,300 officers have undergone training and have been issued medical supply trauma kits, police said.

Rick Van Houten, president of the Fort Worth Police Officers Association, said he believes that tactical medical officers serve a purpose greater than just providing training.

Having armed tactical medical officers assist on scheduled tactical missions such as executing forced-entry warrants, or unplanned events such as an active-shooter situation in a school, is also vital, Van Houten said.

Currently, EMS 99 — an unarmed tactical medics unit with the Fort Worth Fire Department — is providing support to police tactical units when available.

“We need the ability to have law enforcement officers that are equipped and trained to defend themselves but also be equipped to render aid,” Van Houten said. “In that dynamic environment, when you have somebody who needs medical attention but there’s still shooting going on, who is going to load up their medical gear bag and go into harm’s way?”

Van Houten said the dismantling of the unit in October prevented the reassigned tactical medical officers from even being allowed to carry and use advanced medical supplies on duty because the department could no longer be licensed as a First Responder Organization, nor be credentialed by the Emergency Physicians Advisory Board.

“The only thing they can do is the basic stuff taught all the officers,” Van Houten said. “All of their advanced medical supplies were taken up and put in a store room to collect dust.”

Saving lives of officers and citizens

Van Houten said the tactical medical officers, the training they’ve provided, and the trauma kits given to officers “have played a crucial role in not only saving the lives of police officers but also saving the lives of many citizens.”

“I think the latest incident with officer Pearce significantly highlights the need for this type of pro-active medical unit in a law enforcement agency,” Van Houten said.

Among cases in which officers have used their training and kits to render aide are:

▪ When Fort Worth police officer Johnny Bell was shot three times by a wanted suspect at a Haltom City auto shop in January 2013, Haltom City police Lt. Terry Stayer used a trauma kit that she had just been issued that morning to provide aid to the injured officer until paramedics could arrive on the scene.

▪ Just days after he completed a lifesaver program, Fort Worth police Sgt. William Byrnes used a HALO chest seal form his trauma kit to control the bleeding and protect the intestines of a man who had suffered a 10-inch cut across his stomach in March 2013.

▪ In April 2013, Fort Worth officer Marty Stone used his recently issued trauma kit to make a tourniquet for his own leg after he was shot by a suspected robber.

▪ In June 2013, a Fort Worth officer responding to a burglary in progress was credited with saving a suspect’s life after the man attempted to escape through a glass window and cut his arm, severing an artery and losing consciousness. The officer had been trained in the use of compress bandages and recognized the suspect appeared to be going into shock from a loss of blood.

▪ In December 2013, an officer used his training and trauma kit to help save a man who had suffered a life-threatening wound to his forearm in a dog attack.

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 6:27 PM with the headline "In shooting’s wake, Fort Worth police plan to add medical officers."