BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department’s newest addition to their patrol cars and emergency vehicles is one that hopes to save many more lives.

On Jan. 25, the department received sixty Automatic External Defibrillators or AEDs. With help from the Monroe County Board of Commissioners and the Monroe County Council with the use of the general obligation bond, the purchase was facilitated. 

Every patrol deputy vehicle and jail transport vehicle will be equipped with an AED, as will each floor of the Monroe County Correctional Center.

In addition to the AEDs, a trauma kit was also purchased and put in each patrol vehicle for officers who may be the first responders to an emergency scene. 

The Sheriff’s Department hopes the AEDs will help save more lives. 

“We can respond two to three minutes to a scene from a cardiac event, whereas your fire departments or EMS, they’re not constantly on the move like us.”

Dep. Jeffery Brown, Public Information Officer, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office

Each AED has a roughly six-to-eight-year battery life expectancy.