BUCYRUS — In mass casualty events such as acts of violence, the initial responders can be faced with numerous priorities ranging from neutralizing or stopping further violence, managing an evacuation, providing directions and information to responding units and addressing the volume of injured victims.

Based upon lessons learned from a variety of incidents, including the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security (FCEM&HS) along with Emergency Management Directors from the surrounding 14 counties will provide citizenAID Public Safety Drop Kits to first responders throughout central Ohio.

The Public Safety Drop Kits have been developed by citizenAID of North America. Each kit includes six individual public treatment kits which contain medical equipment and lifesaving instructions to help stop life-threatening bleeding in the valuable minutes prior to advanced help and medical transportation arriving on the scene.

The project is based on the study of incidents at a national level, where after action reports proved that a high volume of victims, trying to render first aid, quickly ran out of supplies, forcing responders and civilians rendering care, to use makeshift supplies.

These kits will be packaged in “drop bags” of six sealed individual public treatment kits and made available to public safety agencies throughout our region so that they can be “dropped” or distributed to victims for self-treatment and the general public to utilize to begin immediate lifesaving treatment. This will allow arriving units to focus on primary roles of stopping the violence and securing the overall scene.

The contents of the “drop bags” will include items such as gauze, pressure dressings, tourniquets, gloves, trauma scissors and a marker with instructions.

With these citizenAID Public Safety Drop Kits, the uninjured may now be enabled to help save lives before EMS arrives. Bystanders should no longer feel helpless and should feel compelled to help. They are part of the chain of survival and we are empowering them to be successful in that role.

Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security has contracted with citizenAID to provide nearly 1,000 Public Safety Drop Kits for placement in first responder vehicles such as police cruisers, fire and EMS vehicles as well as special event units working large crowd public events. The kits are being purchased through a State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) Grant which was awarded regionally to the 15 regional counties in central Ohio.

These kits will be dispersed to our local law enforcement, and Crawford County will receive a total of approximately 20 bags, based on per capita for each county. There will also be one located in the Crawford County Courthouse.