Sioux City Police continuously train to make sure they are prepared for any emergency

We rely on them to keep us safe and help us during some of our most vulnerable moments and they are put into situations many couldn't imagine.
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"We're required to be social workers, we're required to be therapists, a lot of times we're required to be that Emergency Medical Responder," Officers, like Andrew Dutler with the Sioux City Police Department, go through training several times a year.

"But it's as far diverse as driving, talking. We work a lot on communicating and de escalation," Dutler said. "Really anything that you can think of that we do, this is covered in that biannual training."

This spring, part of that training involved field medicine, because oftentimes officers are the first to arrive when life-saving medical care is necessary

"When we show up on the scene, hopefully we can assess it very quickly and then we can apply the appropriate skills to take care of that person," said Dutler.

Officer Calvin Chang was leading the medical training

"We aren't doctors, we don't have the training, we don't have the equipment to completely treat someone right there," said Officer Chang. "So our thing is to stabilize and to get them either to an ambulance or to a hospital where they can get a higher level of care."

In some instances, trained medical staff can't get to those who need immediate medical care. "Places where emergency medical services, ambulances, things like that, can't go in immediately because of the imminent threat," said Chang.

For those who wear the uniform, the job is more than just patrol.

"We know when we get involved as police officers, at very least, people are probably going to be experiencing some discomfort or some anxiety," Dutler said of the job. "And so although this is our biannual training, we do truly train on a daily basis."

And they are constantly working to get better and better serve their neighbors.

"It's an education that's ongoing, and when you talk to officers who have been doing this job for 25 years, they'll even tell you it's like sometimes they learn something new on a daily basis," Dutler said, "since the Sioux City Police Department takes a lot of pride in the amount of training that we do."

These men and women in police uniform, making sure they have the skills they need to help you when you need it most.

"We truly work in a career field where seconds matter," Dutler said, "And so that's why doing this ongoing training, it defeats maybe some uncertainty that might creep into an officer's head when they get to a scene."

"And that's why a lot of times you see officers moving so fast, sometimes no matter what they're doing is because we're trying to assess something very quickly, and we're trying to leave a person or a situation better than what we found it."

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