This pastr week I was on spring break & had the chance to run calls with my volunteer fire station. We had several calls on one day. The first was a structure fire at 0500 in the morning. It was a perfect scene when it came to interstaion cooperation and communication. The problem was the county sheriffs deputies passing several engines on their way to the scene and running a few responders in their POVs off the road. Later that day around 10 pm we had a drunk hit a power pole. We were toned out and when I arrived on scene a deputy almost hit my vehicle & he had run a fellow responder off the narrow road. Then the deputy jumped through live wires & pulled the victim out of the vehicle. Do any of yall have this kind of problem with the law enforcement officers in your areas? Are they cooperative or are they like the ones in mine?
Remember that for this same reason we can find out how toxic the nasty is on a HAZMAT just by seeing what condition law enforcement is in when we arrive on scene. Blue canaries...
in my town the cops go like 70 to a person sick at the beach like they are more likely to get some one hurt on the way to the call then really help out
I've come across this a few times as well (I've never seen an officer run anyone off the road, although). We had a massive MVC one night and it was a cluster from the get go. When we arrived on scene (dispatched after police and ems.. .another big issue) police did not release the victim extrication to us, they stayed in the mix of things, one jumped into the back before the vehicle was secured, the other was pulling on a body when it was still strapped. it was a bad scene. No one was doing scene safety. We were on a busy street and no one had set up any blocks, no one was watching for traffic. There's a more to it, of course, but it was a bad scene.
I would chalk this up to lack of cross training. How do we expect them to do what we expect, if they don't know what we expect?? And same for them as well. Do they know you are in a POV responding to the same incident. Do they understand the dangers the way we do at calls, such as downed wires (although they should), vehicle stabilizatioin, and something as simple as c-spine is often overlooked. I would hesitate to say it's incompetence and wonder if we don't need to help each other a little more with training and perhaps suggest some joint training ventures. Services would work a lot better together if they trained together, no?
All in all, it is annoying and can be dangerous when we aren't on the same page.
THe real problem here is the cops have a know it all attitude. They do what they want. They get crabby when we call the FD to a MVA to shut down the highway. We are taking safety of our people in our hands. All they worry about is getting the damn traffic through and who gets the ticket. Also they dont care if the patient is hurt, usually the first question is HAVE YOU BEEN DRINKING.
The cops know that we are responing in our POVs because the paid county chief has sisned off on us having red lights & we have to run our hazard flashers. so as far as I know they know we are responding. But I agree totaly with you on the cross training. thanks for the reply
Im a criminal justice major & I just recently found out that that askin the question have you been drinking is against the victim constitutional rights. Its amazing what the cops get away with now. Im glad that this situation isnt just confined to my area. hope things get better with all of yalls cops. thanks
Ha Wow sounds like you had a bad day. The cops in my community are wonderful for the most part. I mean DONT GET ME WRONG THEY HAVE BAD DAYS WHERE WE JUST WANT TO KILL EM!! Have you guys ever tried to talk to them outside of a call just chill and hang out get to know each others lives? I mean that may be why we all get along we're all close for the most part, Small area either grew up together, or something to that effect. Hope it gets better if not just remember you're their heroe!!! lol
we have the same problems. i've even had a cop try to tell me how to fight a fire. the only thing i can tell ya is make sure the chief knows and hopefully he will try and take care of the problem.
just remember on a scene. for ever cop that is down stay back 1000 feet!
Our City fire department and police department work side by side in almost all large emergency's. We respect each other for the training and exsperence each other brings to the play area. Being from a small community we are brothers and sisters first. There is occasional a race down the city street toward a house fire, were the police car and the fire truck are neck and neck. We call on each other and we protect each others backs. I guess what i am saying we are all on the same side. Providing the best customer service to the community we protect.
interesting as hell in my town the sheriff's deputies have to go rite by my station just about on every call it gets a little crazy, structure fires they run around the house and break out all the windows makes a hell of a free burn, I think they teach that at the academy. MVA's they get there as fast as they can check for DUI and then stand around and bitch about how long it is taking to extricate the patient or clear the scene so they don't have to do traffic control when they even do that much. I have actually had one of the sargents threaten to write me for impeding on the way to an mva, I told him to get at it because my next stop was his bosses office and I don't mean his shift commander I mean the sheriff, and when I leave his office I'm usually pass the problem child on my way out, radio traffic from the sheriff is high priority. Happens atleast 4 times a year, always have your Chief handle it, walk in put your feet up on his desk and explain how it is going to be or else they can start packing all those fancy tools in the back of there cruiser and do it all there selves, that is how I handle issues with the sheriffs office or local police department.