Every police officer should receive basic tactical medical training to better respond to mass violence such as the Navy Yard massacre, Boston Marathon bombing, and other active-shooter attacks, the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA) announced.

The NTOA cited recent mass attacks in its Tuesday statement, which called on agencies to provide patrol officers with Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS) training as well as basic tactical medical gear.

"Patrol officers are now trained and equipped to respond to active, violent incidents using tactics that were once reserved for special weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams," said Dr. Kevin Gerold, a physician at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and NTOA's TEMS chairman. "The time has come to also provide these officers with basic TEMS training and equipment in order to potentially save the lives of victims, bystanders, police officers and suspects in the event they are wounded."

The NTOA will publish its revised position statement on tactical medical training in the Fall 2013 issue of its The Tactical Edge magazine.

Related:

ATF's Tactical Medic Program

Field Trauma Care for LEOs