Power in your hand

Police officers are often first on scene when a medical emergency unfolds, whether responding to a road traffic collision on a dual carriageway, patrolling a busy city centre on foot, or attending a domestic incident miles away from the nearest ambulance station.

When someone suffers a cardiac arrest, every second counts. Every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces survival chances by up to 10%. With the rapid use of a defibrillator, survival rates can reach as high as 70%.

But when the nearest defibrillator is fixed to a wall or stored in a vehicle, distance becomes an obstacle. While these stationary defibrillators play a vital role, the time taken to retrieve one and return to a patient is time they don’t always have. What’s more, officers are likely to be carrying a substantial amount of equipment, such as body-worn cameras and armour. This kit can take a physical toll over the course of a shift, causing fatigue, reduced mobility, and critical delays in reaching patients.

Pocket-sized power, ready anywhere

A new generation of ultra-portable defibrillators is changing how police forces respond to medical emergencies and protect public safety.

St John Ambulance’s HEART Pocket defibrillator weighs just 700g and is roughly the size of a mobile phone, making it the smallest, lightest defibrillator on the market. This life-saving device can sit in a vest pocket, so officers can maintain the mobility needed for their role, like during foot pursuits and in confined spaces, across a full shift. This means less fatigue across a shift, faster movement when it counts, and crucially, quicker time-to-treatment for patients.

With life-saving capability in their pocket, officers can respond the moment they arrive on scene. The HEART Pocket provides step-by-step voice guidance with CPR prompts, including a metronome and hand placement instructions, enabling officers to confidently intervene in cardiac arrest incidents before specialist support arrives.

The HEART Pocket also comes with an eight-year warranty and is approved by the EU’s Medical Device Regulation (MDR), meeting the highest standards of safety and reliability to protect the public.

Ready to respond in any situation

Cardiac arrest can affect people of any age, and the equipment carried by officers must reflect that. The HEART Pocket features a built-in paediatric mode, allowing officers to switch between adult and child settings at the press of a button, with no separate pads or additional accessories, and with the pocket-sized device covering all patients.

For police officers who may be first on scene at incidents involving children, whether at schools, in homes or at public events, this capability is crucial.

Built for operational reality

Officers don’t work in controlled environments; they work in rain, wind, dust and extremes of temperature. Equipment gets dropped, knocked and jostled in the back of vehicles and the bottom of kit bags. Any device that cannot withstand those realities is not fit for purpose.

Drawing on over 150 years of first aid expertise, St John Ambulance has developed the HEART Pocket to withstand tough shift conditions. It is rated IP65 for dust and water resistance, and has been drop-tested from 1.5 metres, ensuring complete reliability even after inevitable knocks and falls.

Put the power of first aid in officers’ hands

Defibrillators mounted in custody suites and locked in vehicles play a crucial role in saving lives, but distance and delay remain an obstacle. With portable defibrillators, whoever arrives on the scene first brings the life-saving equipment with them.

Forces that equip frontline officers with personal defibrillators are not simply adding a piece of kit. They are changing the nature of first response, building a layer of life-saving capability that does not depend on proximity to a building or a parked vehicle. In rural areas, where distances are greater and ambulance response times longer, that capability can be the difference between life and death.

St John Ambulance is the sole UK distributor of the HEART Pocket defibrillator, which will help police officers keep people across the country safe. All profits from the defibrillator sales go back into supporting the charity’s vital work, helping to fund the training and equipment volunteers need to keep communities safe.

For more information, click here.