As part of Operation Sceptre, officers from Warrington police have given their support in the rollout of RAPAID bandages to taxi drivers in Warrington, designed to stem serious blood loss following a knife attack or serious accident.
On Saturday 16 November, officers from Warrington’s Neighbourhood Policing team joined forces with RAPAID charity for an operation rolling out lifesaving first aid bandages to taxi drivers who operate within the town.
Based at Warrington Bank Quay station, a hub that thousands of residents and commuters from across the North West pass through every day, officers and the RAPID team engaged with drivers on the ranks to roll out the kits.
The kits contain several military-grade bandages for the most serious injuries, alongside a non-perishable instruction card so that anyone can apply the bandages correctly and quickly.
The emergency bandages have been distributed to thousands of taxicabs across the country already, with participating cabs displaying the green RAPAID window stickers, allowing members of the public to flag them down should emergency first aid be required. Over the course of the day, 50 cabs were fitted with RAPAID bandages.
The rollout in Warrington coincided with Cheshire Constabulary’s response to Operation Sceptre, the nationwide week of intensified action to reduce the impact of knife crime within our communities, with the Neighbourhood officers and Chief Inspector Neil Drum meeting the team and helping with the rollout of the kits over course of the morning’s operation.
Chief Inspector Neil Drum, of the Warrington Command Team, said: “Knife crime is a key priority and Cheshire Police has an excellent history of partnership working. This distribution of emergency bandages to taxis across Warrington could be the difference in saving someone’s life.
“It was great to meet Charity founder Alex and his RAPAID team during their trip to Warrington to distribute these extremely important bandages to our local taxi drivers that are easy to use and store.
“The implementation of the RAPAID campaign is a welcome addition to a range of initiatives that we already have in place across our town designed to keep everyone who lives, works and visits Warrington safe.”
The RAPAID charity was founded by retired firearms officer and veteran Alex Chivers in 2020 and has since handed out over 3,000 kits to taxis across the county.
Charity founder Alex Chivers added: “With a serious haemorrhage it’s a grim fact that you can bleed to death in under five minutes – time literally does save lives and the quicker treatment begins the better your chances of survival.
I knew that a solution had to be simple enough for the untrained public and easily accessible to find in those vital first moments.
It made perfect sense to use the same military bandages designed for the battlefield and to have these bandage kits carried on taxis that are in and out of our community day and night”.
