The time has come to train police to look after the public they serve.

It never ceases to amaze and dismay me that there are apparently Police officers who patrol the beat but who have little or no first aid training.

I represented a family at the Inquest in the latter part of 2013 where the deceased fell into a state of excited delirium which the police did not recognise nor had they been trained to recognise. The Independent Police Complaints Commission had done a report which expressed concerns about the level of training.

Unfortunately it seems as though nothing has changed. The Independent newspaper reported on 23rd December about the death of Duncan Tomlin who died whilst he was restrained and having a seizure. There is now a criminal investigation as well as the IPCC enquiry. Duncan’s family face the ordeal of waiting for both of these investigations to conclude before there can be an inquest in which they can participate.

The main issue seems to be that the police perceived Duncan to be violent because of the seizure and reacted accordingly. It will be for the various investigations to determine whether or not the police response was appropriate. From first view however it seems to be that the police lack training in the most basic first aid skills. Surely it is not too much to expect every serving police officer is trained in first aid.

In our workplace we have to have trained first aiders, to be a cricket coach for kids you have to be trained in first aid. However a police officer with daily contact with members of the public does not...

Time to train the police and to start to equip them to look after the public who they are pledged to serve.