Police officers are often the first responders at a scene, including medial emergency scenes. The old model of medical emergency response in the event of a heart attack had officers waiting for medical personnel to arrive in order to use AED. However, the problem is that the AED’s may arrive at the scene too late to save the victim. Equipping police officers with AED’s and training them to recognize the signs of a heart attack and use the AED correctly and promptly, is the best way to increase survival odds for heart attack victims. The author draws on journal articles appearing in professional medical magazines that underscore the benefits of police officers and other first responders carrying AED’s. The widespread availability of AED’s also becomes necessary as traffic problems contribute to the time it takes to arrive at a medical emergency. Police officers may arrive at medical scenes faster than medical personnel because officers are already out on the streets and may be physically closer to the scene than medical personnel. Financial barriers are discussed as one factor that has kept AED’s out of the hands of police officers, however, overall the police use of AED’s can save money for cities or counties by reducing overall medical costs. Philosophical barriers also exist to the police use of AED’s, especially in terms of the debate over the proper role of police in American society; are police officers supposed to engage in non-peacekeeping tasks? Generally, there is agreement over the fact that police officers are a part of the public safety continuum, and as such should be properly equipped to carry out any type of public safety duties. Other barriers to the use of AED’s, such as long response times created by traffic problems, can be minimized by the correct implementation of the AED program. Finally, information sharing and cooperative working relations between police officers and emergency medical personnel is underscored as vitally important for the success of an AED program.