GLASGOW, Ky. — Glasgow police officers are now equipped with personal trauma kits and specialized bleeding-control training through a partnership between the T.J. Community Mission Foundation and T.J. Regional Health.

The initiative provided 41 individual trauma first aid tourniquet kits to the Glasgow Police Department, enough to equip every officer with a personal bleeding-control kit that can be carried on a utility vest while on duty.

Five larger trauma sling bags were also provided for school resource officers.

The project was coordinated through T.J. Samson Community Hospital's newly designated Level IV Trauma Center and included Stop the Bleed® training led by certified instructors from T.J. Regional Health.

The kits are designed to help first responders address life-threatening bleeding before emergency medical personnel arrive. Training focused on techniques such as applying direct pressure, wound packing and proper tourniquet use.

Ashley Ritter, trauma program coordinator for T.J. Regional Health, said the program places lifesaving tools in the hands of officers who are often among the first people to arrive at an emergency scene.

“Severe bleeding can cause death in as little as five minutes, often before emergency responders can arrive,” Ritter said. “By equipping our law enforcement officers with bleeding control kits and the training to use them, we are putting lifesaving tools directly into the hands of those who are frequently first on the scene. This program helps ensure that immediate care can begin when every second matters.”

Ritter said the effort aligns with the hospital's role as a Level IV Trauma Center and its commitment to injury prevention and improving trauma outcomes across the region.

“As a designated Level IV Trauma Center, T.J. Regional Health is committed to injury prevention and improving trauma outcomes across our region,” Ritter said. “Providing bleeding control kits to law enforcement officers extends trauma care beyond the hospital walls and helps ensure that lifesaving interventions can begin at the earliest possible moment.”

Randy Burns, executive director of the T.J. Community Mission Foundation, said the foundation was proud to support the department through the grant-funded project.

“The T.J. Community Mission Foundation is honored to be able to provide this lifesaving equipment to the Glasgow Police Department,” Burns said. “Our healthcare network has a wonderful working relationship with the leadership and officers of the department, and to be able to provide them with this equipment is very meaningful to our board of directors.”

Glasgow Police Chief Guy Howie said the equipment and training will help officers respond to emergencies while strengthening an existing partnership between the police department and the local healthcare system.

“These kits will provide our officers with immediate first aid trauma kits and training that they can have ready every shift they work,” Howie said. “Glasgow is a great community and the relationship that we have with T.J. Samson Community Hospital is a great example to the rest of the community of how we all can work together. Any time we can combine these kinds of resources to help each other is just another way we are all working together to make this an even better community.”

According to T.J. Regional Health, this is the second bleeding-control kit project funded by the T.J. Community Mission Foundation. In 2021, the foundation provided Stop the Bleed kits to the Columbia Police Department and the Adair County Sheriff's Department.

The organizations said the partnership is intended to improve emergency preparedness and public safety across south-central Kentucky.