helicopper

I don't think this is generally public information - it would be too easy for some miscreant to disrupt operations by transmitting tones and activating pagers/sirens all over the place for no reason. 21st Century malicious false alarms via radio hacking. Of course I know you have no dishonorable or unauthorized intentions but this site is a public one so the info could be accessed by anybody! I share my colleagues curiosity about why they are being sought. After all, the only tones I ever want to hear are Station 51's! KMG365

If you overrun your credit cards you're not a criminal (the action is civil) and you're not endangering the live/well-being of a child. If you do that while on the FD's computer that's an administrative matter between you and the department. However in this case, the computer was used to facilitate the crime so it is relevant and could very likely have been seized as evidence. That he is a fire chief and state employee is a part of the story - especially since he used the FD computer and state vehicle in the commission of this crime. Yes, it is a black eye for the fire service. Just like every story about a cop getting arrested for something is a black eye for law enforcement. We are held to a higher standard and will be portrayed as guilty until proven innocent by the media and often the public because of our positions in public service. I don't think the fact that he's a fire chief is what made this such a big deal - I've seen plenty of stories about people from all walks of life being arrested for such charges and it is a big deal no matter what they do. It makes me as a parent that much more cautious (OK, maybe paranoid) and reminds me how important it is to safeguard children in this day and age.

Great point! It isn't just LE that stresses the importance of this point. I learned it many moons ago in EMS, again at the Police Academy and friends and colleagues in the private sector have more strict guidelines on appearance and behavior than alot of FD's and PD's I know. One in particular, has a week long training class on how employees shall dress, how their hair is styled, how they greet their counterparts, in general how to make a good impression. In a nutshell it's like the old saying "you only get one chance to make a first impression!" Professionalism is professionalism - note there is nothing in this word about paid or not so let's not go there.

Date: 03/02/07 Time: ongoing as of 1020 Location: Bronx River Parkway between Oak Street and Yonkers Avenue Frequency: WCPD 155.310, YFD 46.500, 484.7125 Units Operating: WCPD B-1 requesting FD Description Of Incident: Several occupied vehicles in fast-rising flood water. Writer: Chris192

I don't know if anyone else mentioned it... Route 100 at the Taconic State Parkway in New Castle. Seth, if you're looking for lots of trucks, the biggest yard that I know if is the one on Route 55 just outside the City of Poughkeepsie. That's the regional HQ. Hopefully you'll be up and about soon enough to go on a photo hunt!

These are two separate DOT yards... Dana Road at Route 9A and the Saw Mill River Parkway at Eastview. There is also a DOT yard off Route 100 in Somers just south of Route 35 and one in Cortlandt just west of the Annsville Circle on Route 6/202. The one on Saw Mill River Road is at the Odell Avenue intersection and covers much of the Saw Mill and Cross County. Others are on the Hutch between Hutch Blvd and the CCP interchange and off West Street/Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains/Harrison. For the Thruway Authority, they have yards on I-95 in Larchmont (Chatsworth Ave is the cross I believe), Westchester Avenue under the 684 ramps, I-87 at the TZ Bridge, and a small salt/sand storage building at the Yonkers tolls in I-87. Planning to kidnap a few tons of salt are ya?

Staying in EMS for another 13 years doesn't qualify as incredibly stupid??? Sorry, couldn't resist!!!

Wish it were that simple. If this 'blanket protection' was adequate, why do agencies continue to carry malpractice and associated insurance policies? I was always under the impression that Good Sam laws didn't apply to professional contact - that is responding with an ambulance/EMS agency. The legalese you quoted does nothing to reduce my confusion or improve my understanding of the section. If you are really concerned about it, consult your agency's legal counsel (or find your own if the agency goes "huh, who?" when you ask ) for an accurate interpretation. The other side to all this is that even if Section 3000-a of the PHL applies, it may only be a defense that you have to raise during legal proceedings. Translation: you're still going to have to go to court, pay lawyers, legal fees, etc. and have to argue that the section applies to you. Not an enviable position! As great as this forum is, I wouldn't count on it as solid legal advice! No offense!

When did they cover Yonkers/Mt. Vernon? To the best of my recollection they never had either contract... Yonkers (help me fill in the blanks here): Yonkers VAC (existed as a "back-up" to the contract service until the mid to late 80's) AA Abbey Richmond ? Empress (1986 or so to the present) Mt. Vernon: AA Affiliated Empress Anyone remember anyone else?

Thanks Fex, that's exactly what I was thinking. When Ford or Chevy has a recall do you vow never to drive their cars again? Some poor management decisions were made at the Corporate level, at JFK, and probably a bunch of other places, some heads need to roll, but overall I've had a lot of good experiences with JetBlue and will be flying with them to FL in May (when there's no chance of a snowstorm). I once spent about seven hours in the Dallas airport waiting for an American Airlines flight (no snow, no ice) and it sucked but every airline suffers with adverse weather once in a while. Here's some info on how they plan on fixing their reputation and service...

I'm interested in finding out who in Westchester County has rope rescue teams and what their qualifications are - high angle, low angle, rappelling, etc. Also, what training does a member on the team have to have in order to be "qualified" for responses? Where, besides the fire training center, do you train? Thanks in advance for your input!

A State Senator is actually considering legislation banning people from crossing the street with an iPod - maybe they should impose tougher penalties on violent crimes like this one instead of feel-good legislation that is really absurd. I am truly amazed at this brazen attack on a uniformed, on-duty police officer. Not a criminal, mom says. Of course, I suppose he was an altar boy and class president too! He's a psychopath and needs a LONG stay in prison!!! Unbelievable!

New York only has a death penalty for capital murders, that is 1st degree murder - intentional murder of a police officer, correction officer, witness, etc. or a murder committed during a few select violent felonies (robbery, burglary, for example). No death penalty at all for "attempted" crimes or anything else. Right now I think the death penalty statute is still being re-written because the Court of Appeals found that jury instructions were improper making the statute unconstitutional. Gotta love that! So in this case, this "first offender" will probably get little more than a slap on the wrist. A real deterrent to his doing the same thing again!

Alcohol + Stupidity = Being dragged off a live TV show on your A$$. Unbelievable, you gotta see it to believe it! Jimmy Kimmel Show - Andy tossed for groping Ivanka Trump in case the above link doesn't work this is the address: http://www.vidmax.com/index.php/videos/view/599

From what I've been able to learn about this incident, he was part of a group of officers patrolling a neighborhood and was less than a block away from two other cops when the attack occurred. The perp stated he watched and waited until there was an officer by himself to launch his attack. It's only because the other cops were so close that the attack was interrupted and the piece of human garbage was apprehended.

The "sick call" is probably one of the gray areas that will have to get an emergency response even when 99% of the time it is not a life-threatening condition. However, when the call is for a conscious 25 year old with a knee injury on a baseball field, why exactly do we need lights and sirens? Why do we need an FD first response, ALS fly-car, and BLS ambulance? But we should also look at the actual statistics about the use of lights and siren in our response. Studies have shown that we only save a minute or so in most cases. Is this iron clad and fool proof - of course not. But it does show that we don't need them as much as we THINK we do. You're also right about people needing to heed the info from people already on the scene. If someone else (PD, FD, other EMS) is there and they report a conscious and alert patient, there is no need to be waking everyone else up to get there.

How about a system based on response times and standards of care instead of paid/volunteer? If a volunteer agency can roster a crew in quarters fine, if they can't supplement it with paid personnel. The days of paging out for a crew and hoping one responds is what should go the way of the horse and buggy. How does that impact response times? 10-15 minutes just to get the ambulance on the road is ridiculous. Let's not glamorize any agency or unit that buffs jobs like the VAC's you desribe. That's no system either!

ALS and Alpha are on the mark as usual. A couple of other thoughts... As was stated, EMS is never free. Either the system is tax subsidized, supported by direct billing, or donations/fund raising. Regardless of where an EMS agency gets its money, there's an expense to the operation. If it is a volunteer agency there are no salaries to pay but there is still insurance, fuel, equipment/supplies, etc. that need to be covered. As for call volume, the higher the volume the more difficult it is to keep response times down. It doesn't matter whether you're dealing with paid crews or volunteers - the standard should be the same. And that is the fundamental problem in EMS. There are no consistent standards. Years ago a proposal was made to the Regional EMS Council to adopt a response time standard consistent with AHA and other guidelines. The volunteer contingent at the REMSCO opposed any response time criteria because they couldn't meet it. Rather than improve the system and reduce response times, they argued that volunteer agencies could not and should not be held to standards of commercial agencies. Who did that benefit? Certainly not the patient waiting 20-30 minutes for an ambulance. We have no system - there is no consistent standard of care and even in a county as small as Westchester there are disparate response times, levels of care, and no assurance that an ambulance will even get out the door. We're the worst system abusers because we keep fighting against a comprehensive system. How can we sit here and call the people who call for our assistance system abusers? That's our JOB! Sure, we get BS transport calls and Medicaid taxi runs but you know what - that's part of the JOB! We can't pick and choose! ALS hit the nail on the head when he described the sick call that can't get covered and goes mutual aid and five minutes later two full crews respond to an MVA with entrapment. Some systems went to no dispatch information with initial tones to prevent this. They just tone out for a crew and advise that they have a call. We sit in judgment on those who call for an ambulance for what we deem a non-emergency but we don't judge the agencies who can't get out the door at all. Who's the system abuser? Stop using lights and siren to go to every call - and worse to the hospital with every call - and deposit people in the waiting room when they didn't need more than a ride. Take the benefit of using 911 away from them and many will stop calling. (Thanks ALS, credit for this is yours!) Let's actually lobby for reforms that will give us a system - one that is worth the kind of respect we all want. the rant continues...

As I reflect on my commute this morning, I find myself listing all the driving habits - especially those in bad weather like today - that drive me absolutely up a wall! So, I thought it would be therapeutic to post them here and start a thread to see what drives everyone else crazy. First, the left lane hog. They're driving 20 in the left lane lane with their hazard lights on because it's snowing and don't care who's behind them. Usually this is the '82 Chevy Vega (or equivalent) with four bald tires (all of different sizes I might add) but sometimes it is the 4WD SUV too. Alright, now it's the road hog. Straddling both lanes, may also have display the same symptoms of the left lane hog (slow, hazards, etc.) but there's no way around this one! How about the highbeamer? They're driving with their high beams on and don't give a little rat's arse who is coming or passing them. Just blind everyone! Most often this is the NYC TLC Lincoln who's lost in the Country! Last minute exiter - waits until they're so close to the exit that they have to swerve from the left lane (of course) across the stripes to make it to the exit lane. Cell phoner - in the left lane yapping (hands-free or not) and completely ignoring everyone and everything around me. May be combined with one or more of the above. Last but certainly not least - the one in the left lane a mile and a half ahead of you as you approach with lights blazing and siren wailing who waits until you're 100 feet behind them before standing on the brake, almost stopping in the left lane, and frantically swerving into the next lane.

Another thing just occurred to me - these are all the same morons who were on line in front of us in the supermarket (because we all don't have PeaPod) with two loaded shopping carts because of the forecast. Yet they're on the road today going to work anyway!

Another great example of media coverage not quite painting a complete picture. If the EVAC budget is 130K and they got 144K from the City, they were operating at a surplus every year?!?!?! If they're going to lose the difference between the amount the City gave them in 2006 and the state cap amount, that's only 39K, not 85-90K as stated. If the City is eliminating the funding completely, they're outta their minds! ALS hit the nail on the head - it's time for the municipality to take responsibility for the provision of EMS within their borders! Establish a SYSTEM that works and fund it! If the best system is the existing VAC (or rescue squad - that's what you call them in the Garden State, right?) so be it, but if it isn't create something that works. This is patently absurd - either the volunteers can staff an ambulance or they can't. To wait 18 minutes before turning over the job is freakin' negligent! If they want to hold jobs that long, forget the hospital EMS division, contract directly with a funeral home! As said in a prior post, this is a great example of petty politics and no consideration whatsoever for patient care! No wonder people drive themselves to the hospital!

Did someone say air drop?

I've used both types of watches during my career - some have said that I even used a sundial but I steadfastly deny that! As for 15x4 or 30x2 or 60 - depends on the nature of the call and the patient. If the patient has a cardiac history and their pulse is irregular I'm much more likely to measure a pulse for a full minute to determine the irregularity and rate as accurately as possible. For the majority of patients a shorter count and multiplication is fine. I agree that the pulse is only one small piece of the assessment puzzle, too! Tick tock!

I believe that the MTA has statewide jurisdiction in NYS but only limited jurisdiction in Connecticut. This doesn't mean you're going to see them in Albany, but they have police powers statewide - they do not have statewide police powers in CT.

I believe the Highway Unit was initially set up when the MTA took over the bridges from the TBTA but I've been told that there are still some operational difficulties with the plan. If you cross the Whitestone, you'll see a bunch of the cars parked there. As with any MTA PD unit, they have police powers throughout the state so a car stop isn't so unusual.