Paramedics to work overnights at city jail cells

Police are often asked to take on multiple roles in the course of the job, and that can include first responder duties to assist someone enduring a health or medical crisis.

Sometimes, it's a role they also have to play in police cells.

As of late December, that's changing. Police have brought on board two full-time and three casual primary care paramedics to cover off concerns that might arise in the detention unit overnight.

Insp. Kelly Trithart was among those who spent the past few years working to bring in primary care paramedics — a move that's become all the more welcome given the rise in opioid overdoses.

“If you think about our public now coming in for reasons other than health reasons to the detention unit, the lifestyles that they're living — possibly they have some health issues and addiction issues — our paramedic is able to meet them while they're being brought in,” Trithart said.

He said any information gathered from prisoners is voluntary. Paramedics are able to assess individuals as they come in, look at any health issues they might have, help them with prescriptions and even connect them with ongoing medical care.

“But then of course as soon as something happens, when there is a medical emergency, now we have a paramedic to be on scene basically before they're even transported,” Trithart said.

Previously, a lot was riding on the shoulders of police manning the detention area to be sure prisoners got medical treatment when needed. Tragically, there have been several cases of prisoner deaths in police cells in Saskatchewan.

“Certainly, there wasn't one (particular) incident that happened that made us do it,” Trithart said.

“Over the years, we've looked at this based on there has been in-custody death ... across the country. And so it's a good thing

Now we have an opportunity to respond a lot quicker and more appropriately.

to look at and do some research on and decide whether or not it would be appropriate to have a paramedic down in detention.”

He said the RPS looked at best practices in other jurisdictions, including within a range of other police services that already had paramedics on staff.

Not only did he note prisoners would likely be more comfortable dealing with a paramedic regarding health concerns, he added this arrangement is better for police as well.

Officers once required to head to the hospital with prisoners are now freed up for regular calls for service.

Trithart said it used to be that detention staff would call EMS for numerous complaints just to be on the safe side. Now that won't be as big a concern, knowing someone fully trained as a paramedic is on hand.

“Now we have an opportunity to respond a lot quicker and more appropriately with someone like a paramedic that has more tools than a police officer,” he said, adding the presence of a paramedic will come as a great relief to officers.

For now, paramedics are only staffing the busier overnight hours, but the hope is to expand the program to 24 hours.

The paramedics are provided through a private company called Calian Group.