How well do you work with PD in your department

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Permalink Reply by Chris Borchardt on March 10, 2008 at 10:08pm

I sure wish we had the same cooperation from our PD and sherrifs Dept. as most of you other guys do. We are running into the problem of 7 or 8 officers at a ditch grass fire and none at a 1052 on I90 when we have semis flying by us at 70mph. Granted it is not all bad we do get along for the most part, I just wish you knew what to expect when you got to the scene.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Bricault on March 18, 2008 at 4:06pm

Hi Danny,like most cities, I think the busier you are, the more you see the cops on a day to day basis, the more familiar you become to the police and the better the working relationship you'll have. In the busy areas of the city here we tend to have very good relationships with the police. Of course there are some exceptions.
One negative observation I do have when it comes to working with the cops, especially the young, uneducated ones is that they seem to be the biggest e.m.s. abusers in the city. The police tend to be hypersensitive to the litigiousness of our society. Because of this, the police call out the FD or e.m.s. for every little thing and end up tying up our companies needlessly. "We just wanted to have this guy checked out." To make matters worse, there is a paramedic on duty in the jail. These cops, especially the younger ones, need to be "educated" that they need not call out the FD or e.m.s. for everything.
Dave LeBlanc mentions a nice way to get the police and the FD to understand each other is through cross training. I agree; what a great way to bring the cops into our line of thought. The down side here in Albuquerque is that both departments are so large (700 firefighters and 1000 cops) that it all but impossible to schedule this type of cross training. In fact, in my fifteen years with the AFD the only time there has been any cross training is when we teach the SWAT team how to properly perform forcible entry.

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Permalink Reply by TR Hagerty on March 18, 2008 at 6:00pm

Our PD Is great to work with we have no problems. The PD guys are in and out of the station all day long and they start there day off with a cup of fire house coffee. I can even go to say that our third shift guys have help us lay lines to the plug.

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Permalink Reply by Brendan Nugent on March 27, 2008 at 9:30am

My department has a pretty good relationship with the cops. Most of the time we deal with them at motor vehicle accidents and they are good about doing their job and not interrupting what our job is most of the time. There are a few times where there is an issue, but that is taken care of properly and usually thats the end of it. As i see it, they do what they need to get done and we all ccompromise to make each other's job a little easier. I think its good that we make a relationship with the police prior to an inccident to make sure we know how eachother operates.

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Permalink Reply by Preston Kinzel on March 27, 2008 at 11:49pm

My department doesn't have a real problem with the PD. Actually some of the PD is members of the FD as well. There have been a few incidents where the police car is in the way but they move them right away. I do have to give credit to the police department where I am. They keep civilians out of way so we can operate safely!

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Permalink Reply by Brent Sanger on April 11, 2008 at 12:49pm

Down here we have a pretty good relationship with the PD, at least on the street level. Occasionally we have one who gets bent out of shape because we're not moving fast enough to suit them and their investigation of the incident. One incident almost caused injury to a firefighter and damage to an engine when an officer who was so impatient that the engine crew wasn't moving fast enough so he could measure a skid mark from an accident that he got in the cab of the engine and decided to move it himself. That officer was reassigned by the end of his shift. Our relationship with the Highway Patrol Barracks in our area is much better. Two years ago a trooper was critically injured in a high speed pursuit. Our department responded (we provide EMS for the county) and did everything we could as fast as we could. Ultimately, the trooper succumbed to his injuries. But, while he was in the hospital, there was a constant stream of department members going up to visit, check on him and his family. The bond created there was incredible. And the barracks commander has always had a warm spot in his heart for us. Anytime we go to an accident where the Highway Patrol shows up, the first words out of their mouths is some minor variation of "What do you need us to do to help you." And for the most part, depending on the shift and precinct with the PD, we get that as well.

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Permalink Reply by JOSEPH KOONCE on April 27, 2008 at 5:11pm

In my dept for the most part, we get along with the pd. except for the few who do not understand what we do. We get cop cars in front of houses, fire hydrants and inside of buildings before we even get there. This happens on alarms with nothing showing and other calls. Where I teach, we get the pd recruit classes for a couple of days for fire training. Every new PD recruit should attend some type of fire training before they " hit the streets". How do other dept's deal with this issues.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Isbell on April 29, 2008 at 5:17pm

We have a good working relationship with our local police depts.

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Permalink Reply by Art Bloomer on April 29, 2008 at 5:24pm

Cops don't belong in burning buildings or parked anywhere near them period. If they can get people out, thats a plus, but if they in turn get in trouble, they become part of the problem. If they had scored 2 points higher on the test, they could have been firefighters.

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Permalink Reply by Brenda Tenney on September 20, 2008 at 7:38pm

On my dept,we work well,with the PD,,,If there is and fire,etc ,we say move over PD,they do,After wards they can do what ,must be done for their records,and so on.Going to and call from the FD,the Police has to move over,On the way back,oh yea,we do the speed limit. We have a couple of Policeman on our depts. I think we work well,to gather...
Being and X security policeman,,,we respect the PD,and them ,Our FD...Brenda

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Permalink Reply by Barry Daskal on September 20, 2008 at 11:04pm

What this whole thing often comes down to is individuals. I am fortunate enough to have worked in Firefighting, Law Enforcement and EMS; and I can say I have experienced this issue from every angle. As a firefighter I've had issues with some cops; working as a cop I've had problems with some firefighters.

Notice how I said "some" not all.

Smart-ass things like, "If they had scored 2 points higher on the test, they could have been firefighters" perpetuate the problems between agencies!!! I won't lower myself or acknowledge that gem of a comment any further.

Can some conflicts be avoided? Sure. Almost all can when you have better understanding of each others functions on the emergency scene.

Keep your eye on Fire Engineering in the next few months. Fittingly I have an article that is going to be published titled, "On-Scene interaction with law enforcement". It thoroughly addresses this issue head-on. Hopefully it will be out shortly.

If anyone would like to ask specific questions about law enforcement officers and inter-agency cooperation from "the other side", I'd me more than happy to answer them as best as possible in a constructive way.

Stay low, stay safe.

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Permalink Reply by Barry Daskal on September 20, 2008 at 11:32pm

"Do any departments have a program with your local PD on teaching them how to stay out of the way at a fire scene? " Does your department have classes on how to stay out of the way at police incidents??

It goes both ways guys. It's called mutual respect.

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