Where firefighters come to talk training

Expectation of privacy? Search warrents needed?

Three crew members from different shifts share a bunk room and store their personal and work stuff in them. One of the members falls under suspicion and the civilian head of the fire Dept.along with the ranking shift Officer tosses the room.

Did the other members need to be notified and/or present during the search?

Nothing was found, so no harm, no foul, but for the future. Plus I like telling them they pooched up.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David "Chip" Comstock Jr. on August 9, 2011 at 5:37pm

I believe the answer to this question would depend on knowing additional facts. What exactly was searched? As employees share the room, what is the expectation of privacy? Does the FD have any disclaimers? I can state that any time a governmental entity conducts a search that may result in official/disciplinary/criminal action, there is a potential claim for the violation of the employee's civil rights. Administrators need to thread lightly.

RSS

Welcome to
Fire Engineering Training Community

Sign Up
or Sign In

Or sign in with:

Policy Page

PLEASE NOTE

The login above DOES NOT provide access to Fire Engineering magazine archives. Please go here for our archives.

CONTRIBUTORS NOTE

Our contributors' posts are not vetted by the Fire Engineering technical board, and reflect the views and opinions of the individual authors. Anyone is welcome to participate.

For vetted content, please go to www.fireengineering.com/issues.

We are excited to have you participate in our discussions and interactive forums. Before you begin posting, please take a moment to read our community policy page.

Be Alert for Spam
We actively monitor the community for spam, however some does slip through. Please use common sense and caution when clicking links. If you suspect you've been hit by spam, e-mail peter.prochilo@clarionevents.com.