I'm vollie EMS at a college campus in upstate New York and recently noticed that campus PD has begun running BACs on our patients when the tool is available to the responding PD unit.
On our campus, its SOP for a police unit to be dispatched to all intox calls dispatched to EMS, its a matter of the police being on scene to ensure that the EMS providers are safe in the event that the victim becomes agitated/refuses transport at which point if necessary they can enact a 2209, essentially forcing them to go get treatment at a hospital as they aren't mentally competent to make the decision when they're AMS.
Anyways, on multiple intoxs in the past few weeks the officers have begun doing BACs on the patients, none of whom were facing any charges. They were simply drunk and needed to sleep it off, the LEOs had no authority to press charges and did not do so, seeing as certain laws in our region prevent legal consequences for underage drinking when they call 911 for medical aid.
Anyone have any idea why they would be doing this? We don't request/need it for our assessments. Just curious as to the reasoning behind this practice.
On our campus, its SOP for a police unit to be dispatched to all intox calls dispatched to EMS, its a matter of the police being on scene to ensure that the EMS providers are safe in the event that the victim becomes agitated/refuses transport at which point if necessary they can enact a 2209, essentially forcing them to go get treatment at a hospital as they aren't mentally competent to make the decision when they're AMS.
Anyways, on multiple intoxs in the past few weeks the officers have begun doing BACs on the patients, none of whom were facing any charges. They were simply drunk and needed to sleep it off, the LEOs had no authority to press charges and did not do so, seeing as certain laws in our region prevent legal consequences for underage drinking when they call 911 for medical aid.
Anyone have any idea why they would be doing this? We don't request/need it for our assessments. Just curious as to the reasoning behind this practice.