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Permalink Reply by FETC on August 9, 2012 at 12:22pm

Does anyone here on FFN have a "Firefighter Code of Ethics" for which they are held accountable to?  Check out Firefighter Misbehavior -  

http://www.firefighterbehavior.com/news/index/layoutfile/home

 

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Permalink Reply by FFN WebTeam on August 9, 2012 at 5:04pm

Recently encouraged by the USFA this week as well, "USFA Encourages Adoption of Firefighter Code of Ethics"

FFN

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Permalink Reply by FFN WebTeam on August 9, 2012 at 5:07pm

Most of the comments we received from Firegeezer's post "More Firefighters “Stepping In It”" were that it was "not a big deal".

FFN

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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on August 9, 2012 at 11:28pm

We don't have a specified "code of ethics" as being pointed out, but we do have rules and standards between the dept and city personnel policies to abide by. For the most part the use of gear or uniform for such an event would not be allowed without permission from the dept. If such an event was done and similar issue occurred, I would bet there would be an investigation and most likely discipline. 

 

The video from the Firegeezer link does hit on a couple aspects such as if the gear was issued or purchased, which does make questions. There are depts out there that have FFs purchase their own gear, so can be a stcky situation as to the regulation of private property. If it was issued, then that should be a no brainer that gear is only used if approved by the dept......such as wearing helmets for MDA Fill the Boot if off duty.

 

However, there is also the potential that the gear may be provided by a private source such as a FF who may own a teaching business (right Bill?) or even "old" gear that was purchased at auction etc. There is also the potential that a helmet may be privately purchased while other gear is issued. Just saying that there is potential that just because of the pics and the comments with the pics, doesn't necessarily mean these were "city" uniforms.

 

Furthermore, while the written article in the Firegeezer link mentions a FF.... "According to JFRD policies, firefighters are forbidden from wearing anything that identifies themselves as a firefighter in a place that sells alcoholic beverages, unless they're working in a city capacity."....I would think pertains to patronizing a business in uniform while off duty, the reality is this was a fundraiser put on by FFs, for the family of a fallen FF......I'm pretty sure that people knew these were FFs. I also question the aspect of being "identified" as a FF, because really how many of us have some type of fire related T-shirt etc? Point being try going to a FF event like FDIC, NFA, etc and not find people with some form of fire related clothing....despite being off duty. Point being it can be fairly easy to pick out a FF.

 

 

Really, this is an issue for the particular dept to handle and interpret. I'm betting these are members of the FD and were part of the "FF auction" as the poster stated. IF the gear is issued, I would agree that they should not be using it for such purpose. Yet, there are many questions that linger that aren't easily answered. Was this a public event? Was there a cover charge? Was the gear provided by a private source? Sure it can be easy to say that people shouldn't have gone this far etc, but there can be a fine line that wasn't crossed. Fine line it may be, but a line nonetheless. Basically I will withhold judgement until more facts are known.

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