Removal of defibrillators by NSW Police puts lives at risk

Opinion piece: By David Lloyd, Heart Foundation CEO

Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are simple to use and are the best tool we have to save the lives of the 26,000 people who will have a sudden cardiac arrest each year.

So you can imagine the Heart Foundation’s reaction when we were informed by journalists that NSW Police – who are often first to an emergency scene - were ending a trial of AEDs in patrol cars and removing them from patrol cars for good.

For context, South Australia has just mandated AEDs in all emergency service vehicles. From 1 January 2026, that state will also mandate AEDS on public transport. Can you believe it? Bus drivers in South Australia will be better equipped to respond to a medical emergency than NSW Police.

Senior police from NSW Police have offered only flaky excuses for their decision, which further raised our eyebrows. Not only were their reasons factually incorrect, but as a trusted community agency NSW Police risked misinforming the community as to how safe and easy AEDs are to use. They made it sound hard and scary, which could not be further from the truth.

For the record, you cannot be hurt or sued using an AED and you absolutely do not need training – they are, by design, made for anyone to grab and use should someone nearby go into cardiac arrest. Just open them, select your language and follow the voice-guided instructions.

With around 10 minutes to save a person’s life when their heart stops beating, we want whoever is first on scene to have an AED. Sports clubs, schools, workplaces, other emergency services all have them. Police should be no different."

David Lloyd

Heart Foundation CEO

NSW Police – it’s time to put AEDs back in patrol cars. I don’t for a moment believe there’s a single serving police officer who would walk past a person having a cardiac arrest – that is, a person who collapses to the ground in a state of near death – and say ‘oh, it might be out of my operational scope for me to help that person’. Of course they would want to help – and it’s on Police Command to ensure they have the right tools to do so.

Premier Minns – please step in and put an end to this madness. We need more, not less, AEDs in places so people can access them. This includes in all police cars.