Improving Police CARE Act
Officially: “Improving Police CARE Act” Read the full text
What it does
Read it in plain language
1Short title
This section would give the Act a short title: the Improving Police Critical Aid for Responding to Emergencies Act, or the Improving Police CARE Act.
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1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Improving Police Critical Aid for Responding to Emergencies Act or the Improving Police CARE Act .
2Trauma kit standards
This section would add a new subsection (d) to Section 521 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10202), which governs the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. The new subsection would define a trauma kit as a first aid response kit that includes a bleeding control kit that can be used to control a life-threatening hemorrhage. It would provide that, notwithstanding any other provision of law, a grantee could only purchase a trauma kit using funds made available under this grant program if the trauma kit meets performance standards established by the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance. It would clarify that this requirement would not stop a grantee from separately acquiring the individual components of a trauma kit and assembling complete trauma kits that meet those performance standards. Not later than 180 days after enactment, the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, in consultation with organizations representing trauma surgeons, emergency medical response professionals, emergency physicians, other medical professionals, relevant State and local law enforcement agencies, professional law enforcement organizations, local law enforcement labor or representative organizations, and law enforcement trade associations, would have to do two things. First, the Director would have to develop and publish performance standards for trauma kits eligible for purchase with these grant funds, and those standards would have to require, at a minimum, that a trauma kit include the components listed below. Second, the Director would have to develop and publish optional best practices for law enforcement agencies on training officers to use trauma kits, on deploying and maintaining trauma kits in law enforcement vehicles, and on deploying, locating, and maintaining trauma kits in law enforcement agency or other government facilities. That same consultation requirement, with the same list of organizations, applies to both the performance standards and the optional best practices. The required components of a trauma kit would be: a tourniquet recommended by the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care; a bleeding control bandage; a pair of nonlatex protective gloves and a pen-type marker; a pair of blunt-ended scissors; instructional documents developed under the Stop the Bleed national awareness campaign of the Department of Homeland Security or any successor campaign, by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, by the American Red Cross, or by any partner of the Department of Defense; a bag or other container adequately designed to hold the contents of the kit; and any additional trauma kit supplies that are approved by a State, local, or Tribal law enforcement agency or first responders, that can adequately treat a traumatic injury, and that can be stored in a readily available kit.
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2. Trauma kit standards Section 521 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 ( 34 U.S.C. 10202 ) is amended by adding at the end the following: (d) Trauma kits (1) Definition In this subsection, the term trauma kit means a first aid response kit, which includes a bleeding control kit that can be used for controlling a life-threatening hemorrhage. (2) Requirement for trauma kits (A) In general Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a grantee may only purchase a trauma kit using funds made available under this part if the trauma kit meets the performance standards established by the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance under paragraph (3)(A). (B) Authority to separately acquire Nothing in subparagraph (A) shall prohibit a grantee from separately acquiring the components of a trauma kit and assembling complete trauma kits that meet the performance standards. (3) Performance standards and optional agency best practices Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, in consultation with organizations representing trauma surgeons, emergency medical response professionals, emergency physicians, other medical professionals, relevant law enforcement agencies of States and units of local government, professional law enforcement organizations, local law enforcement labor or representative organizations, and law enforcement trade associations, shall— (A) develop and publish performance standards for trauma kits that are eligible for purchase using funds made available under this part that, at a minimum, require the components described in paragraph (4) to be included in a trauma kit; and (B) develop and publish optional best practices for law enforcement agencies regarding— (i) training law enforcement officers in the use of trauma kits; (ii) the deployment and maintenance of trauma kits in law enforcement vehicles; and (iii) the deployment, location, and maintenance of trauma kits in law enforcement agency or other government facilities. (4) Components The components of a trauma kit described in this paragraph are— (A) a tourniquet recommended by the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care; (B) a bleeding control bandage; (C) a pair of nonlatex protective gloves and a pen-type marker; (D) a pair of blunt-ended scissors; (E) instructional documents developed— (i) under the Stop the Bleed national awareness campaign of the Department of Homeland Security, or any successor thereto; (ii) by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma; (iii) by the American Red Cross; or (iv) by any partner of the Department of Defense; (F) a bag or other container adequately designed to hold the contents of the kit; and (G) any additional trauma kit supplies that— (i) are approved by a State, local, or Tribal law enforcement agency or first responders; (ii) can adequately treat a traumatic injury; and (iii) can be stored in a readily available kit. .
Where it is
In the Senate.