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How does your dept. and the police get along on scenes
You have all scene the video of the firefighter that was arrested .It is real and happens more than you think . Just think , You get a call for a mva . You respond only to be told by the police that you are not needed. Fluids are leaking onto the ground . Still have a potential for fire also. What about the possibility of injuries as you have not checked. How do you act? Can you be sued if something goes wrong and you left ? Does this sound familier ? Who is in charge of the scene ? What have you done to help with your relationship with the police ? Chime in and let us know .
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Padre Pete on
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Damnthing, You said it for me. Your way is our way in NYS too. The idea of responding to something the fire dept had been dispatched to and having a police officer assert himself as OIC is just inconceivable. While thier eagerness to help is always appreciated, the placement of thier vehicles has proven a problem at times but it has never compromised our great working relationship. We are a small community. The fact that they have a key to our station, so they can use our workout room, probably dos'nt do us any harm either. Keep The Faith.
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Permalink Reply by paula beckham on
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once called we roll only fire command can advise us otherwise and more often than not we keep going on scene if its a fire we are in charge
if its a mva and we are extracting again its us same with a mva walking wounded once the scene is secure its handed to the police
if its a fatalaty the police may request we leave the deceased in the vehicle untill the serious crash unit have done their investigation
we assist the paramedics if its safe and all is well we take instruction from them re patent care
the police here are pretty good and do not interfeer
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Permalink Reply by Donnie Mathias on
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If there is a fire or a threat of fire then we are incharge. After that threat is over then the sheriff's are in charge it just really depend's on the situation. But we all get along really well i even hang out with all of them . As far as opion everyone just work together to make thing's run smoother on seen.
Donnie
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Permalink Reply by Tim Wood on
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We work with all the other agencys suprisingly well. We have never had a major problem. The cpos want the road open but dont give us any crap. Theres a mutal respect i think. We need them and they need us.
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Permalink Reply by Dustin J. Millis on
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I wrote a blog about this very topic a few months back. My dept. generally gets along with state and county law enforcement. We work well together. However, our local law enforcement, unfortunatly, is a different story. Our town has a full time police for supplemented by a reserve officer program. That pretty much means they are volunteer cops. Hey, I have no problem with that; I'm a volunteer ff after all. Most of the full time cops are good guys. They know what to do on scene and when to stay out of the way. The reserves are a different story. Generally they are good for getting in the way and pissing everyone off. Two nights ago, we ran a simple diff. breathing to an elderly female ( a frequent flyer). We get there, with PD already on scene, and I make pt. contact. I place the pt. on high flow o2 and start to obtain a hx. The reserve officer on scene decided he was going to take my stethascope off my neck!!! and bp cuff from my bag and start taking vitals. I looked at him like "what the hell are you doing???" A full time officer came in and politley took the reserve officer out in the hall then laid into him. As we were leaving, the reserve officer came to me and said "ya know, i was just trying to get some vitals." I said "Well thanks, but thats my job. I'll let ya know when I need the door held open." He didnt like that last part lol.
Anyway... this is just one incident of many where we see these reserve officers overstepping their boundaries. It gets very frustrating
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Permalink Reply by SMOKEnPipesJim on
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In My State, Fire has overall command of any scene. By law...we have numerurous incidents on the interstate when the SP doesn't call us,.. and guess what. after so many years, Not being a target is just fine by me.. I've had one incident where I was company officer and ended up telling the young Trooper to call his supervisor to the scene, he refused so I called and requested his supervisor, who was apparently off duty and the shift supervisor responded and educated the young trooper as to the situation, per statute.. I am also aware that just recently a career officer was arrested ON Duty at a scene, But I dont even know the gosip side of that story.. if must have gotten bad,....to gett that far.... bottom line what purpose does this serve? IF your a vollie he's gonan be gunning for you.... again since I have been on the highways since 1976 It doesnt make me a bigger "man" to begin with the testosterone... its not worth the bs
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Permalink Reply by Jake Fireman on
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AW hell, we just show up n shoot em!
Isnt this the discussion about firefighters "packin"?
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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We both (law & fire) have a job to do. taking the time to understand each others needs and letting ego's go to the wayside is the only way to approach this. with that said, if you are having problems with law enforcement telling you to leave, personally, I have no problem with that. any time I have spent on the highway at a MVA usually leaves me thinking that it's not really a good idea to hang out on scene any longer than necessary. if the cops don't want us, so be it. But... before I leave, I will state a couple of facts to the officer with an attitude.
1. If there are any issues that arrive due to my engine company not being allowed to "do their job", then any legal recourse will be on that officer and his or her department.
Key Point: I don't care if they don't. It doesn't do anyone any good to get into a pissing match with some out of control anal retentive cop. Write it up, forward it to your Battalion Chief and remind yourself that this particular problem is way above your pay grade. This is what Chief Officers get paid. It's there problem, not yours.
2. Inviting the cops to your house before calls is a good hit. It gives you a chance to get to know one another and I promise that if you make the effort to share a cup of coffee and some heart to heart discussions, you won't have any problems.
3. you need to understand that for highway incidents, the number one priority is to "clear the roadway". adopt this as your mantra coupled with clearing the scene asap will win you a lot of points.
4. use your engine to protect both firefighters and cops. explain why you do this and come up with an acceptable game plan for both you and the law.
5. get to know the cops in your area personally, invite them to the station to do their reports, watch bowl games or just hang out. you win their trust and you will have a friend for life.
Hope these thoughts help out. I've been doing freeway responses with the California Highway Patrol for years and have enjoyed face to facing with the responding chippy, especially the new ones, stating that my priorities were to clear the roadway and sometimes to clear the fu*k_ing roadway. We both develop and immediate meeting of the minds and understand that we both respect each others needs. Plus, you never know when you might need one another cause things happen...
Clear communications and honest will give you the needed results. But remember when dealing with the cops, that it's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice. And don't think donuts aren't always appreciated... : )
TCSS, CB
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