What’s in a D13 armed police first aid kit

The D13 kit answers one problem. An armed or tactical officer who takes a penetrating injury does not have time to get to a vehicle, open a response bag and work through it. Whatever care happens in the first sixty seconds has to be on their body, in the same place every time, openable with one hand.

The platform

It is built around the MERE SOLO pouch, a compact individual first aid kit designed to mount to a duty belt or the front of a plate carrier. The internal layout is fixed, so any officer can work a colleague’s kit without being talked through it.

What's in it

The D13 is deliberately small. It carries the equipment to treat the injuries that kill quickly in a tactical context, and nothing else.

• A windlass tourniquet for limb bleeding
• Haemostatic gauze for junctional and packable wounds
• An emergency trauma dressing
• Vented chest seals
• Trauma shears
• Gloves and a marker

How it's meant to be used

This is a point of wounding kit for self aid and buddy aid. It is not a treatment bag, and it is not meant to be. Once the threat is controlled and the scene allows, the casualty moves to a bigger kit and a higher level of care. Any team carrying D13s should also carry a team medical bag and have a written casualty evacuation plan before the shift starts. The IFAK buys minutes; it does not replace the rest of the chain.

We supply it singly or in team sets, and we run the point of wounding drills that make it worth carrying, either as part of a Police and Tactical Medic course or inside a bespoke package.