More than a month remains until election winners are sworn into local office, but a newly elected town council member from Orchard Park already is laying out the groundwork for one of his top priorities.
Town council-elect Dr. Greg Bennett sees concerns with EMS shortages in the community and wants to ease the problems that come with it. His goal is to have Orchard Park law enforcement receive EMT training, though it means trying to find a balance that also doesn't take away from officers' current duties, Bennett said.
"Four hundred hours for each officer, but they have existing duties, so this has to fit in in a way that doesn't compromise their other work, that it's affordable," he said. "I don't want it to, you know, make it hard on individual officers.”
While the logistics have to be worked out, the benefits would be clear, mainly that law enforcement would have the knowledge to start care if they were the first one on-scene, instead of having to wait for EMS, Bennett said.
"Officers are often the first person at the scene, and might encounter somebody with a cardiac arrest and have defibrillators," he said. "Anybody can use them, if you've been educated in using the automatic defibrillators, but if you're skilled and certified in using them (then) you're going to use it faster and better."
Bennett says he also would be interested in working to receive his own EMT certification.
