One other observation - around here its actually common to train local security and police in AED operation, and to stock their cars or patrol vehicles with AEDs. The City of Bellevue (Washington) police vehicles have started getting them, despite having a really good response time from the city fire department EMTs and Medic One service. And I heard that they already had their first successful AED call about a week after the program started.

The concept is simple: if they get a 911 call, or even a 911 hang up, they may arrive first on scene, and they take the AED with them to provide immediate treatment. This can be important especially in closed or secure environments where it may take an escort to get to a patient, or in a mall where distance = time not treating someone.

My employer does this too with their security guys, and they strive for 3-4 minutes from a 911 call to the local security center. And they do it for 911 hang ups, which I experienced myself early one morning, as I was trying to dial an outside line (dial 9) and then call Bangalore (911 or 991 area/country code), but fumbled the digits, hung up and tried again. Security got the fumbled call, read it as a possible 911, and as far as they knew I might have been a nearly morning cardiac arrest victim who dropped the phone. Two very sharp security folks showed up at my office door a couple minutes later, relieved, and so was I, and very sheepish that I had set them off on the run like that. It gives another dimension to respect these guys who do this mostly mundane work, interrupted by moments of excitement.