Rolling Meadows police to get AEDs

The Rolling Meadows Police Department will purchase automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for officers to carry out in the field, through a Powering Safe Communities Grant funded by ComEd and administered through the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

Officers often are the first to reach the scene of a cardiac emergency, arriving before emergency medical personnel. Since one of the most effective forms of treatment is a shock from an AED, officers will now be able to play a vital role in the lifesaving process when seconds count.

Officials said the AEDs add to the department's lifesaving capabilities, along with officers' naloxone, the opioid reversal drug. Rolling Meadows Police officers have saved three lives of overdose victims since being equipped with naloxone last year, according to the department.