In my town, we have cops that are crossed trained to be firefighters as well as cops. They drive SUV's with there turn-out gear inside. What do you think? Good idea or bad?

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It depends. If they are on duty, Not exactly a good idea because they sometimes lose track of whether or not they are a cop or fireman. But it can also be good because if the Officer is out in his vehicle (off duty) or just leaving duty he is already ready to go. It can go either way.
We have officers here in the county I work for that are also firemen and they leave their gear at the firehouse, so that way they can be firemen when they are not officers, no confusion and we can keep track of them to keep them safe.
Very good question I guess it really depends on the officer.. I can't really think of a good answer for that!
Lets see what everyone else says...........
Cops have a place in the fire service /public safety arena ... it's called traffic control. If there is no criminal investigation involved , their usually in our way.
they should be kept separted.
Well, where there is a need I think what ever works. Where there are adequate resources such as full time or volunteers firefighters why have them cross trained? I have seen and heard of many problems with dual role Police/Firefighters. The two just dont mix very well. Totally different mindset between the two.
Baaaaad idea..... everyone knows Cops want to be firemen anyway!!! Seriously though, they do their jobs, we do ours. I was Chauff one day and had a cop in our town PASS ME doing about 70 going to a fire that was already knocked down by the first due!!!
The Department I was with in Grovetown, GA was a "Department of of Public Safety" where LEOs were Firefighters and vice-versa. For them it worked fine.

Basically two Officers were detailed each shift to be on "Fire Duty" and they operated the apparatus to the scene, the remaining officers operated in their LEO capacity with their Turnouts in the trunk of their Cruisers. The department saved a lot fo money and had enough staffing for most routine responses, but they also had a good cadre of volunteer FF and relied on Mutual Aid form the County and form the neighboring county (the city line on one side was also the county line.

Seems like a smart idea to me, although it certainly isn't a universal answer.

GM
If it works, do it.

In my State? Forget it - we're so understaffed with Police that they'd either never be available for firefighting or never available for policing. Yes they sometimes get to a fire before us (rarely, but it has happened) and then they've done good work.

A comment I read above frightens me. Police are responded to all incidents first to determine if ambulance or fire are really needed? Ouch. How about giving the public the response they ask for?
Can see both good and bad to it. Good for rescue out of a house fire if not too involved cops usually beat us to scene. Bad cause they have othe duties and like one person said what if they are involved in bunker gear and someone gets robbed, raped, or murdered?
Has anyone read the article on Page 112 of the March edition of FireRescue?

It's titled, "Under One Umbrella" and is about how agencies in Broward County operate under the umbrella of the Sherrif's Office.

Well worth the read.

One of the main things that prompted the merger was 9/11. By merging, they have addressed many unified command issues, interoperability issues, communicaiton issues, etc.

Me thinks many could learn from this model.

Also consider that with tough economic times ahead of us, this "out-of-the-box" thinking may well be the future and open to consideration...
I agree with you Chad. Well said.
I am not a huge fan of the cop/firefighter. In the area that I respond in, the cops love to do our job. When we get banged out for a smoke in a building, the cops will arrive on scene before we do, then they start running through the building kicking in doors. They don't have protection of a hose line and they don't have gear. Not to bash cops or anything (I come from a family that is all cops and firefighters), but they think that if fire comes shooting out in their face when they kick in a door, they can just shoot the fire and it would go away. So I don't think that it is a good idea.
But the difference is being trained an untrained.

If they're trained then they won't be doing this....

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