Reform/Transform: Creating a Community Responder Program | Local Progress

Prior to the advent of paramedics, police put injured people into squad cars and drove them to the hospital; in some cases, they still do. Paramedics developed as a profession relatively recently, in the 1970s and 1980s. Now, they are a permanent part of our local government and medical infrastructure. This development over the last fifty years demonstrates what’s possible: local governments can establish a new emergency response that provides a better answer to specific emergency calls for service.