A recent donation of supplies to the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office came in handy soon after when deputies used part of the donation to rescue a man who had been lost in the woods for days, according to officials.

The donation had been made possible through 501(c)(3) nonprofit Cops Direct, which helps law enforcement agencies access medical and other supplies that will help them respond to critical emergencies. In LCSO’s case, the supplies were provided by TacMed Solutions.

LCSO Deputy Josh Gentry said his cousin, who works with TacMed, had reached out asking how they could help LCSO. TacMed provides gear for military and first responders, and after speaking with Cops Direct, LCSO received enough trauma response kits for each patrol car to have one.

Cops Direct also donated two active shooter response kits and two foxtrot litters. One of the latter items came in handy just three days later, Gentry said, when a concerned citizen called to report odd noises from a wooded area in the county.

Gentry said they went out to the scene and found a man who told them he’d been lost for days and had no idea how he got there. He said the man was apparently suffering from a diabetic emergency, and deputies used the foxtrot litter to get him to a road where he could then be transported for medical treatment.

Gentry said having the donated supplies “is amazing,” because “without them doing that, deputies wouldn’t have anything like this.”

TacMed Solutions’ Dan Stout, a retired law enforcement officer and former paramedic, said it’s important for them to support active law enforcement, who are often the first ones on the scene of a critical emergency.

“We’ve taken the tools and tactics used on the battlefield and are putting them to use in Anytown, USA,” Stout said.

As mass shootings continue to be a common occurrence in the United States — the Gun Violence Archive reports 69 mass shootings have occurred this month alone — having the active shooter response kits earned particular praise from Gentry.

“I’ve been doing this more than 20 years, and it’s getting worse every day with the shootings,” he said. “We don’t get the budget we used to, so TacMed doing this for us is amazing.”

With the active shooter response kits from TacMed, a deputy can respond to an active shooter scenario with equipment not just for them but a “throw kit” containing a tourniquet, emergency blanket, bandages and other emergency supplies that can be tossed to people at the scene to help treat victims until medical personnel arrive. Each active shooter response kit contains enough items to treat several victims, including a surgical airway kit, gauze and bandages, a decompression needle, seals for chest wounds and more.

“Going all the way back to Columbine, that was an incident that let all the first responders know that we need to change our tactics, change our approach to things, specifically along the lines of medicine,” Stout said. “… This equipment is for law enforcement to treat themselves if they’ve been injured, for law enforcement to treat each other and for them to render aid to the general public … and even to the bad guy.”

The kit can be worn like a backpack, with large outer pockets that can be accessed by the wearer, allowing them to quickly reach in, grab a kit and throw it to someone else at the scene so they can help provide aid to injured victims.

“If the situation has resulted in a lot of people being injured, this is a way to get a lot of medical equipment on the scene and dispersed quickly,” Stout said.

He said beyond making sure law enforcement have access to needed equipment, provisions like these serve as a major morale boost for officers.

“This is also just morale boost for law enforcement to let the know there are entities out there who still believe in what they do and that they’re the good guys,” Stout said. “… It’s definitely a hard time to be the police, and there are still men and women showing up every day willing to do the job. When an agency receives an equipment boost like this, it goes a long way to boost morale, which is important these days.”