St. Petersburg police officers will soon have a new tool to use when they are seriously injured while on the job.

Officers are already encouraged to carry their issued Combat Application Tourniquet, or CAT-T on their person or at least keep it nearby. But with a gun belt already full with a gun, pepper gas, a stun gun, a baton, a flashlight and more, some officers keep the tourniquets in their cruisers.

"It’s big, it’s a big pouch,” said Training Sergeant, J.D. Lofton. “And like anything else, when you start throwing all this gear on, it catches on stuff or you have to sit against it, it gets very uncomfortable."

Officer Michael Cordiviola is part of the estimated 30 percent not carrying the tourniquet. He was recently shot in the line of duty and used a garden hose to stop the bleeding.

"Mickey, not having his tourniquet on him created a concern in the chief, because our welfare is number one in his mind," said Sgt. Lofton. "Let’s find a way that if this happens again, that there is a tourniquet on every officer."

Sgt. Lofton was familiar with the SWAT-T and said within minutes of the chief’s request, he knew that the more compact rubber strip was the answer.

"The advantage here is, it can slide in a shirt pocket, it’s out of the way," said Sgt. Lofton.

Sgt. Lofton says the Stretch Wrap and Tuck Tourniquet, or SWAT-T, is a supplement to the CAT-T. He hopes having another option means officers have one or both trauma tools on hand.

"Our goal is that we’ll have 100 percent of our officers on the street with a tourniquet on their person," said Sgt. Lofton.

Five hundred SWAT-T’s have been ordered and will start being issued next week.

"The interest in the SWAT-T is overwhelmingly positive,” said Sgt. Lofton. “Most of the people that don’t carry the CAT right now have come forward and said already, I can’t wait to get mine."

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