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Is it time for a national Chiefs Law
I've been reading about confrontations between police and fire for years. Usually its the police that have issues with fire personnel. Some are justified others are not. In Delaware we have the Chiefs Law that basically states "whomever is in the right hand front seat has total and absolute control over the emergency scene".
This was started when a chief was overridden on an accident on a RR track by the police and FF's were almost ran over by a train. Of course common sense comes into play. A fire company gets called to the asssit the police the police are in charge. The fire company gets called to a shooting the police are in charge even though its a crime scene and an EMS situation. At accidents fire is in charge and will turn it over to PD when the hazards are taken care of.
This law gives the IC the right to call ANY needed resouce. They can call the National Guard, order the Governor to respond if needed. Of course this as never happened and most likely never will. But it gives us the ability to shut down a highway or railroad without going through the police.
This law has worked for over 40 plus years. It protects the fire company from police that don't understand what the fire company needs to do to do our job. It also saves money from having to bail out that Captain who wouldn't move the rescue on the MVA......
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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Well in my state, New Hampshire the RSA 154.7 (our law) used to say what Craig's current law says.
OUR TIME CAME TWO YEARS AGO: The law was changed that...
The senior fire official on scene and the senior law enforcement official on scene are in UNIFIED COMMAND since the introduction of NIMS.
Wow what a concept, you might have to talk and train together.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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In South Carolina, the Emergency Powers Act (fire) gives "the fire chief or his designee of the authority having jurisdiction" the power to take essentially any action deemed necessary to extinguish a fire or to handle any other emergency. The only exception is crime scenes, and even then, the operational control usually rests with the fire department unless there is an active shooter, bomb threat, or terrorism involved.
In our area, we don't have any problem with law enforcement, but that's because we meet with them on a regular basis so that our SOGs and scene actions are understood by the LEOs.
I used to work in another state where some of the LEOs - particularly some of the state troopers - didn't understand the law, even though that state has a very similar Emergency Powers Act. We started carrying copies of the pertinent law in the clipboard on the apparatus. When there was a dispute, we'd ask the LEO
"You're here to enforce the law, right." They would always answer in the affirmative. We'd then pull out the copy of the pertinent part of the law and politely ask "Please enforce this state law. It specifies that our Officer-in-Charge, as the Fire Chief's designee, is the Incident Commander, and thus is in charge of all activities at this scene." It always worked like a charm, especially if we were nice about it.
As long as you don't devolve into an ego battle, it helps.
LEOs who arrest firefighters and EMTs in the lawful performance of their fire/EMS duties are few and far between compared to the total number of LEOs on the street. That's why the occasional one who goes overboard with an arrest is usually national news within 24 hours. As far as I've heard, none of these cases have ever made it to court, much less resulted in a conviction. Generally, the arrest record is expunged, too.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Dudan on
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I'll echo FETC. A Unified Command system should be established with all agencies represented, as per NIMS. As the IC with a Fire Service backround you may not know the full resources available for use at the scene.
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