Durham police cars fitted with defibrillators
140 kits are being installed thanks to the Red Sky Foundation
Durham’s police response cars will be fitted with life-saving defibrillators as part of Restart A Heart Day today.
140 kits, worth more than £180,000, are being installed after a big fundraising push by the Red Sky Foundation.
They say the move aims to boost survival rates for cardiac arrests across the county.
Joy Allen, Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham, said: "Every little helps and we've seen them in telephone boxes, across the community, but sometimes people might not have access to them and they might not have a vehicle themselves. If they dial 999, there's a real opportunity there that if our officers are first on the scene, we can help save a life.
"If we have any opportunity to save a life then it has to be worthwhile. If we've got the right kit in our vehicles with our officers trained to help then we can also help the public but we never know it might be one of us.
"It's a really fantastic initiative to get it out across the force area that all of our vehicles have got that responsibility and opportuinity to save lives, because it's hard for our officers to stand by and wait if emergency services aren't there, but if they can help whilst they're waiting then that's absolutely fantastic."