JCESU

First of all, "parity", in the world of collective bargaining aggreements is illegal. Even though it is used to arrive at the bottom line most of the time. Personally I have spent hours and hours talking to Medics and EMT's in my area trying to educate them about the CBA "collective bargaining agreement". Law Enforcement in the north east has spent decades fighting for fair wages and benefits. This has not happened over night. To this end the more successful Union's have hired top shelf labor atty's and lobbyists to argue their cases ad nauseum. These services cost money and require a group of people to step up to the plate and grab the bull (management) by the horns. All you need to do is compare the packages from this geographical area to that of a non-union area (particularly southern USA) and you'll see the difference and realize how important the strenqth of a succesfully run union can be in determining your salary and benefits package. If you are a medic/emt and lucky enough to be part of a union that is not lumped in with other services provided by a hospital/medical facility you have half your battle won. The EMS needs to stand alone and not be judged along with facility maint., nurses, radiologists etc. You need to show that you provide a unique, dangerous (at times), life saving pre-hospital care that the commnuity can't live without and that it can't be sub-contracted to a fire dept. or police dept. and must be a completely dedicated service. And that the only way to get qualified people who are going to make a carreer out of saving lives in the realm of pre-hospital care is to negotiate in good faith and pay them a prevailing wage and benefits package that they too can raise a family on....in other words you get what you pay for... Do your homework and find out what different systems are making around the country of similar size and make this a bone of contention. Educating the public is fine. But also educate them on the professionalism of the service and the turn over rate. Sorry for the typos was running late and wanted to dropa quick line. Rick

All the reasons sighted and then some are why we switched to LED's when doing spec's for new trucks. The only flaw and this has more to do with LE than the FD is that you have to be very careful during pursuits. Too close and you can get "blinded by the lights" and the motoring public tends to stare at the pretty lights. So if you are travelling with more than one vehicle equipped with LED's now more than ever you have to use caution at intersections as people can become blinded and not take notice of the other vehciles. As a side note I think our Cuda Spectre's draw like 2 amps. Which absolutely minimal. Rick

I work in Jersey City and up until approximately 1997 the PD handled most medical calls along with the Jersey City Medical Ctr. As far as I am concerned MC personnel are top shelf. But herein lies the problem. When the FD took over what we call oxygen calls, regardless of the nature, they (FD)were dispatched along with the MC and the PD was sent only if someone along the chain of communications felt their may be some sort of danger. Being assigned to E.S.U. we buff allot of the oxygen calls whether we are dispatched or not just to keep our skills sharp and lend a hand where needed...we still have that freedom if we are not tied up. But what I noticed is that the FD is dispatched for a "man down" and given no further details. That man down could be and usually is the result of some sort of violence. So if we are tied up and respond from the other side of the City their is a good chance given the time of day/night that the FD will beat us on scene. Without the proper information the FD will arrive on the scene of an active crime scene i.e. shooting/stabbing where the poop is hitting the fan. Its no secret that we do not have a great rapport with the FD but I certainly don't want to see anyone get hurt. I have notified everyone that I could think of regarding these situations (including the FD union president who asked me to keep a record of these events...CAN YOU IMAGINE!) and it has fallen on deaf ears. I started to document most instances when the the FD is put in a perilous situation. But until somebody up above takes some sort of remedial action thats all I can do. When a FF eventually gets hurt, SHOT OR STABBED maybe things will change but I am not sure that will even change things. As for the MC thier protocol is to stage in a safe area until the PD arrives and normally they do. Sometimes you just turn the cormer and into chaos and it can't be avoided. I've discussed this ad-nauseum with many FF's and usually I just get the nodding of the head. I am sure if it happens here it happens in allot of other jurisdictions. The PD is certainly not in need of any extra work. But I know it was allot safer for responders when we were automatically dispatched when a call came in for EMS. At least we could respond and determine along with EMS if our presence is needed. At the end of the day I think the bean counters are more worried about the amount of runs at the end of the year than they are about safety

You guys are doing a great job with the site....it never ends. Will you allow gory shots i.e. jumper down, impalements etc. Or are you looking for something a little more comedic. I have some fresh off the press. Rick

Not too long ago we had a certain Mayor order the parking authority to change its warning lights(on the roof) to blue. He thought the public would perceive that their were more Police Officers on the road. We ( the Union) advised them they were in violation of the law. It went ignored. Several tickets later they went back to the old color scheme. ALL emergency vehicles have the right of way while responding to a call. However that does not entitle them to operate recklessly. When I was in patrol and responded to MVA's involving the FD and cars if the AI deemed the FD to be at fault he was issued a summons. Nothing personal just business. The idea is to arrive safely in order to render assistance and you cannot do that if you crash into some poor shmuck that panics when the red menace is barreling down on them. If you stop or slow down safely enough to navigate through an intersection and someone drive's into the side of you thats a different story. MVA's are not too difficult to figure out whom is at fault. I understand everyone wants to get their and help but don't put yourself in a position where your going to be sitting in the hot seat five years from now explaining your actions to a jury. I have seen friends go though it and I wouldn't wish it my worst enemy. Rick

We just took delivery of one on a Freightliner Chassis. Its all black with some hidden away led's. It's slated to be left unmarked and used for Tac-Jobs etc. once we reconfigure the inside. The headroom is pretty damn good especially if you have to wait a few hours fora green light. With full tac gear you can probably fit about ten guys with breach tools etc. You can stand up and stretch. Also it has dual zone heating/ac a true god send. Many of the guys don't like it because it breaks tradition but its narrow and has cameras on the outside that you would really have to search for....pretty inconspicuous. The best feature is that it blends in just like any other delivery van. And I can do govr't jobs without raising a brow. P.S. Does anyone have any experience with Mack MR's or more specifically the front ends? I have a question or two! Thanks, Rick

Here in NJ a directive came down from the AG's Office some time ago dealing with ammending tickets. In NJ you are allowed to plead-out to an "unsafe driving charge" twice in a five year period. However the AG excludes Speeding as one of the tickets that prosecutors are able to reduce. There is a rational behind it, but, way to lenqthy to get into it in a single post. Not sure about NYS maybe they followed the same path. Rick

They are still in service and they are quite an imposing site to see.... They are monsters due to their being four wheel drive. http://www.fdnytrucks.com/files/html/specialunits/papd.htm 5th picture down

Unfortunately, in this day and age we still have people that do not think before they act and it certainly does not instill a sense of comfort in the public that we serve. Situations like these should be incoporated into ALL of the public safety arena during training. The standard is that the punishment should fit the crime and in this case it does.....barely. If we want to strive toward professionalism then there must be accountability. Professionally and legally. The only people that have the right to give him a "Break" are the family of the victim. Should we all sit in judgement of him? You bet your a** we should.

Seth, Congrats on your new home. If you need help with anything just drop me a line or give me a call. And BTW the house warming party is a great idea thanks for inviting all of us..... . We'll just have to do a poll on the entertainment. Rick/JCESU

Just my .02 on the topic. We were able to obtain two T.I.'s via federal grants and although its used in a LE application it is also used in rescue situations like Doc22 stated. Just recently we had a gent take an M.I. walking his dog by Liberty State Park which is heavily wooded and the bird was down due to weather. It just wasn't his time apparently because we located him almost immediately. Until you become proficient with it there are some draw backs as far as lighting concerns when using it. Especially street lgihts, strobes and LED's. And there are so many different attachments that make it user friendly while manuevering through rough terrain. Rick

HOBOKEN, N.J. is Vollie world. If your looking for something close to NYC I can put you in touch with someone from the Jersey City Medical Center. There contract re-newal was a topic a while ago, but, they were just awarded a 3 year contract. We work very closely with them and two of my evening tour E.S.U. guys work for them part time/per-diem. Most of their people are top shelf....but its a very busy system. Not sure on the pay scale other than its fairly decent. Another paid service is UMDNJ/University hospital in Newark. Not too familair with them.

or Ketaset........at least you don't have to get so close..

Kewl beans dude....what program did you use....

These sites are worth checking out as well..... http://911timeline.net/ http://ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=52732

X, I do beleive Oddyssey is still doing their REP's.They are probably gonna be doin a few trucks for us by years end...so I'll inquire. Last I was out there they had a few chassis stripped and they had NY on the winshield. But that also could have been for FDNY as well.A couple of months ago I stopped at Truck 1 and they were telling us that they have been having problems with some of rescue bodies being mounted on the chassis. Seems they tweek and twist. Not sure if they ever solved the problem but it didn't sound like they were happy with Saulsbury. Our Truck is being done by P/L here in NJ and he's done quite a few Mack/heavy rescue's hopefully it will be fine. What I'd like to know is how I can get my hands on a Ex-REP for a spare for us.....

Also when we spec'd out our heavy rescue. Which is almost identical to the NYPD Trucks (Mack MR688) we removed the second light tower. It recesses into the box itself and ate up too much compartment space. The front tower sits outside the box on the front of the box and really doesn't take up any room. Which is a major consideration...its amzing how fast your run out of room for all the toys. Take a look at the front of trucks 3,4,5,9 and 11 on Mike M's site..hope this helps.

You may want to give Odyssey in Wharton, N.J. a call. They do excellent work. They are right off of Route 80. Below is the link. http://odysseyauto.com/

Another piece of information I failed to mention was the toll of mechanical failure these engines/trucks responding to what we in our parlance refer to as "oxygen calls". When the FD receives a call they will respond and for whatever reason, policy etc. will not take a cancelation from EMS or the PD. As a result their vehicles take a beating. Very rarely does the FD get on scene before before EMS or the PD. I am not taking a jab at them...its just a fact. If you tune into www.NJ.com and click on scanners you can listen yourself to the PD and the FD. More often than not you will here engine so and so on scene being waved off by JCMC 309 etc. Their runs almost doubled when they took over responding to oxygen calls. But it also has taken its toll on their equipment. Our quarters ( which is the size of an airplane hangar) are located on a huge complex the encompasses the repair shops and in eleven years of service I have never observed so may fire trucks OOS awaiting repairs.....which I can only attribute to there increase in calls for sevice. The majority of their fleet has been replaced in recent years. So I don't believe its an aging equipment issue. IMO the best thing for the city of JC to do is work out a contract with the JCMC. I always enjoy reading what happens to our comrades north of us and would certainly like to hear any opinions on this topic and if your particular city has switched over to an FD based system. And what the eventual outcome has been. X635 and Medic137 have made some good comments. Stay safe.....

I don't know how I missed this thread. It is highly unlikely that the FD will take over the EMS system in JC. Several major companies showed interest in the bidding process but in the end the JCMC/EMS was the only bidder. That speakes volumes. They recently built a new hospoital on propery that was given to them by a previous city admin. and the deal was that they would provide EMS for free. Well the aggreement has apparently expired. The flip side is the FD for the most part wants nothing to do with EMS. They took over handling first respomder calls from the PD in 98'. They tried to fix a system that wasn't broke. The current (at the time in 98")Mayor said ...hey look I am gonna fre up cops (from medical calls-ESU still handles them)to lock up bad guys and make the FD get off their butts and provide first responder calls. He also secretly promised the FD Union that they would get 3 extra comp days for not fighting the EXTRA work his men would have to do. That never came to fruition. And consequently the FD leaves allot to be desired when it comes to answering first responder calls ( I guess 80 days a year is too much to work). Most people in JC use the ambulance as a Taxi to get to the Hospital. It should take you about a day to realize this.....and the vast maj. of FF's joined the ranks to fight fires not to crawl out of bed at 3 a.m. to through oxygen on someone in the projects. Its no secret. There is also the realization of what the city can and cannot charge for providing BLS. Can they bill for service if its a taxpayer based EMS system aka FD run. Also the JCMC has some of the best EMT's/Medics I have the pleasure of working with...I've been in some crazy situations with them and they are damn good. But the real question is......How do you justify putting an $80K per/yr FF in an ambulance, who doesn't want to this kind of wokr in the first place, when you have an experienced EMS system in place that does the job with a whole lot of heart for $15 per/hr. It would not be beyond JC gov't to force a square peg in a round hole...but if they do the residents will absolutely suffer..it may even kill them.

Here in N.J. in the past couple of years their have been many instances where thugs posing as cops have stopped and robbed people in look-a-like police cars. NJSP has a few cars that are black, stealth FCV's. with greyish looking graphics on them. Also as a G.O. they cannot patrol in unmarked cars while in plain clothes. They must be in uniform. The local Municipalities often patrol in unmarked cars of all sorts but are generally used for narco/street crime stuff. NJSP will often clock someone speeding in a stealth or unmarked and then pull along side so the driver see's the graphics or their uniform and doesn't hesitate to pull over. It makes for a safe environment for everyone. In JC we use all sorts of vehicles including taxi cabs and ice cream trucks. But again they are primarily used for surveilance and are not likely to be used for a car stop so the vehicle doesn't get burned. I do like that black on grey look its very sneaky.

Sorry....meant to type are you sure it "wasn't" the 12th instead of the 13th? Thank you for paying attention though....

You may be pleasently suprised to find out that your local legislature (assembly/senate)may help you if you approach him/her regarding this topic. I have had many positive experiences over the years...some bad as well. In NJ you are allowed to have a scanner in your vehicle so long as you are not comitting a crime. Then it becomes a crime in and of itself. I think legit EMS personnel should be allowed to buff any job they want to or listen in on etc. As far as I am concerned if I don't want a transmission to be sent unsecure then I won't. If anyone is a Union rep and needs a little guidance on how to geta bill introduced or sponsored just drop me a line...I'd be glad to help you out. Rick