In the 1990s three extensive studies, which examined different elements of police AED programs, occurred in Allegheny County, PA; Rochester, MN; and Miami, FL.
The purpose of these studies was to examine the effectiveness of equipping police with AEDs, their ability to provide reduced response times in rural and suburban communities and how this translates to improved survival rates from SCA.
The police departments which originally took part in these studies retained their adopted capabilities and now contribute to some of the highest survival rates from SCA in the country.
This study examined the impact of dispatching police officers who were equipped with AEDs, to suspected SCAs, on survival rates from SCA in rural communities.
The study concluded that in the "7 suburban communities, police use of AEDs decreased time to defibrillation and was an independent predictor of survival to hospital discharge.
[8] In 1999 the Miami Dade Police Department partnered with the Metropolitan Miami-Dade County Public Health Trust and the Miami Heart Research Institute to examine the impact of police responders in combination with EMS on response times and survival rates from SCA.
[9]: 1058 During this experiment, the survival rate for witnessed victims of SCA with VT/VF who were assisted by simultaneously dispatched police and EMS was 24%.
[9]: 1063 The results of these studies have influenced many police departments throughout North America to adopt similar defibrillator programs for their vehicles.
Despite the absence of federal regulations requiring RCMP officers to be equipped with AEDs, the BC Provincial Policing Standards state that, as of January 30, 2013, "the chief constable, chief officer, or commissioner must: The BC Provincial Policing Standards were updated to include the clause related to AEDs, after the release of the Braidwood Inquiry.