helicopper

Attached is the Consolidation Report (majority report if you wish). GreenburghFDConsolidationReport.pdf

Does the Town of Ossining PD dispatch the FD or is that the Village?

An "average" of 9 sick days may be misleading; without knowing if there's a group with 50 days and a bunch with none it's hard to draw any conclusions from the headline. Using nine sick days in a year isn't really all that much either. With kids or a couple of colds you can get to nine pretty quick. I know my agency you get a sick day a month so you get 12 in a year. Why is 9 so bad?

Not unlike FD/EMS mutual aid, there is no billing for services used on a "mutual aid" basis. I'm not aware of anyone that charges other jurisdictions for the use of dogs or SWAT or other specialty resourcs. When unavailable, then YES you have to do without and look the old fashioned way. I can not possibly offer an opinion, professional or otherwise, on the efficiency of a single K-9 versus two. I will say this, crimecop hit the nail on the head - time is of the essence so you want a dog working and not being recalled when you need it. With that in mind, I would argue that it is most important for a dog to be available at all times and two dogs won't allow for that. I don't know if that answers your question but it's my point of view. As for giving the dog to another agency, I suppose that it is possible but a dog and it's handler are a team and you can't really just give the dog to another cop and expect the new "team" to be successful.

We have to start painting with a broad brush - have you looked at taxes around here lately? If we consolidated school districts, fire districts, police departments, EMS agencies, and other taxing districts into larger regional areas we would eventually start to see relief in taxes and achieve some improvements in our services. How would the cascade affect be felt as far as Harrison? Cops will just have to do without the dog as they do already - even in Yorktown when one of their two is off duty. If Yorktown cuts the dog, they don't lose the patrol officer he just keeps working without the four-legged partner. I agree that we shouldn't be cutting the K-9 units but I don't get all of your points.

I don't think it's a matter of trust. It's the issue of small communities with major budget woes looking at every avenue possible to save money. That is what they're elected to do; they're not there to just rubber-stamp the budgets from their municipal departments. It may be a bitter pill to swallow but this is the economic time that we're in.

The chief was wrong. Don't be shocked, it happens. I only know for sure because I've read the law. It is not ambiguous at all - sub 2 above clearly states, a clear (white) flashing (or rotating, oscillating, etc.) light is only authorized on an emergency vehicle (and again that's a defined term) when engaged in an emergency operation. I don't know what happened to the formatting of the text from the DMV Rules and Regulations, I'll try to repost that later with the formatting intact. Guys, for all of you that have said you use(d) lights that are in violation of the section but "nobody ever did anything" or "the cops let it go", be happy with that but remember you are in violation of the law and if you have an accident or encounter a law enforcement officer who doesn't care that you're ___________ from _________ FD/VAC/whatever, you can get written. It's the same thing as speeding, if you exceed the speed limit and don't get stopped that doesn't make it legal. Be smart, be careful. Review the law and decide what you're going to do as a well informed consumer.

<BR><BR>Restricted to authorized hazard vehicles. <BR><BR>I strongly recommend that before you (any "you") take on the liablity of adding accessories to your vehicle that may or may not be authorized you take a minute and look at the law. It can be found online and only takes a few minutes to read but it may save you a LOT of aggravation in the future.<BR><BR>Below are also the DMV regulations for colored lights (note that these are the REGULATIONS and describe in more detail what is spelled out in the LAWS):<BR><BR>

That would be NO. The law clearly states that red and white (clear) lights are reserved exclusively for authorized emergency vehicles (a defined term in the law). As for "front of POV's), the law says that a single blue or green light can be affixed to a vehicle operated by a VFD or VAC member. It should be visible from 360 degrees. This does not mean you can adorn your vehicle with 17 different lights all facing in different directions, according to the letter of the law. It also doesn't mean you can put hideaway strobes in your taillights or marker lights as they are clear or red in most cases. Amber lights are regulated too. The bottom line is for all the complaining we do about how people fail to yield, we still send such conflicting messages that it is no wonder that people have no idea what to do.

You are completely wrong. It is a violation of the VTL (Section 375-41) to have anything other than a blue light on a VFD personal vehicle or a green light on a VAC personal vehicle. Red and white (clear) lights are specifically reserved for emergency vehicles (VTL 375-41)

Barry, as shocking as you'll find this, I respectfully disagree. A regional approach to specialized services does, indeed, reduce the cost to individual taxpayers because that cost is now borne by a larger pool of them. Look at aviation for example (don't know why I picked that but it'll work), there is no single jurisdiction in the county that could afford and/or justify having their own helicopter but because of the regional (countywide) approach, EVERY jurisdiction in the County does have one available to it. If the cost for something is $1,000,000 and you only have 1000 people paying for it, the cost is $1,000 for EACH. If you spread that out over a tax base of 10,000 that cost drops to just $100. That is a BIG difference to the individual taxpayer! The same is true of other specialized resources and services but because we hang on to the notion of home-rule and maintaining individual fiefdoms instead of regional approaches to these things we have some jurisdictions with lots of resources and others with nearly none at all. With regard to your third point, how many departments will continue to falter and provide substandard services instead of embracing the idea of consolidation and moving forward with it?

The responsibility is derived from statutory authority. Where is the statute that describes this? Are there applicable exclusions (such as nuclear power plants or correctional facilities)? We can speculate all day long but somewhere it is in the law...

What's your point? Fortunately four year olds don't get lost every day. Shall we use that argument against fire apparatus or other specialized resources? The point is the Town Board is using a valuable and unique police resource as a pawn in a budget battle.

What's the policy after midnight when there are two troopers? Both on the drivers side and the prisoner in the rear right (passenger) side?

Fire departments spend how much money on their apparatus and these cameras are not worth the cost? Next time you see a car service vehicle or limo take a look in the window, many are being equipped with cameras to protect the owners/operators from liability so the cost can't be that prohibitive. Given the liability associated with emergency response and the potential for litigation, it would be prudent to have them. It also would allow for QI/QA and for driver training, a topic that is entirely too rare in the emergency services.

Thank you all for bringing this to our attention. It is currently being investigated and will hopefully be corrected quickly.

A much simpler and less contentious issue would have been to use the Utah Highway Patrol SHIELD as the memorial marker and not use any religious symbol (or symbol that could be construed as religious). There would be no basis for any objection on constitutional grounds if they did that.

Imagery isn't real-time. In most cases they are updated periodically (every few years seems to be the norm). Unless you're DOD or one of our intelligence agencies, we can't afford real-time imagery.

What is the legality of a government entity doing something that has been voted down by the taxpayers? Can a government entity "horde" funds to do a project without taxpayer approval? I thought every government entity had to have a zero budget balance at the end of their fiscal year (notwithstanding contingency funds).

The US Park Police use the Bell 412 as an EMS and rescue platform with excellent results. I'll be the first to agree that the 407 is a questionable EMS platform but it does work and dozens of operators around the country use them, also with great sucess. The 429 may evolve into a competitor for the EC145 and now I guess the AW139 but only time will tell. Agusta Westland has been around for a while. Their more common aircraft are the A109 and A119 (NYPD) but the 139 is sure catching on with the NJSP and MSP contracts. It is an enormous aircraft and is not at all cost effective or practical for law enforcement missions which both agencies allegedly perform also. Between the fuel cost and noise, they're not going to be doing any patrol with them. That 10 foot difference in the rotor diameter is going to matter also. And I hope they educate their responders about increasing the size of the LZ and not trying to use anything like cones for LZ makers.

Date: 10-30-10 Time: 2225 Location: 81 Price St X Hickory Hill Drive & Chestnut Ridge Way Frequency: 46.26 - FIRE-14 Units Operating: DFFD: E-47, E-48, TL-23, U-24, 2091, 2092, 2093. Hastings FD: L-22, E46, Car 2181, 2182 Irvington FD (FAST) R-49, 2202 Ardsley FD: E-164, L-50 Pleasantville EMS: Rehab 7605 C&O Zone 3, B-14 Coordinator Dobbs Ferry PD Con Ed Weather Conditions: Clear, Cool Description Of Incident: Structure Fire - fire through the roof of a single family residence. Heavy fire conditions upon arrival, E47 to set up master stream in front. Con Ed electric with a rush. Reporters: firebuff860, Mike2931, ENG47INE, DFFD227 Writer: helicopper 2225hrs - 60 Control direct dispatch to DFFD of a fully involved car fire in the driveway near the structure, possibly extending to structure. 2227hrs- DFPD unit on location confirming fully involved house fire, attempting to evacuate occupants. 2235hrs - All units going to exterior attack. TL-23 and L-50 ladder pipes up and operating, E-47 with master streams to front of blding. 2245hrs- Command reporting major roof collapse. 2350hrs- Fire under control, checking for hot spots.

I'm glad you brought this up as it is time for the seasonal reminder about chimney fires. Chimney fires, without extension into the structure, are not appropriate for an IA. Please review the rules about IA's in the IA section for more detail. This has been policy for some time. I'm not aware of the other one to which you refer but I will look into it and advise via PM. Thanks for your IA's!

Yonkers ESU has had extrication tools and was primary for extrication for years until the FD expanded the numbers of their apparatus with tools. Now, it is generally who gets there first. Sometimes it will be the PD, especially if the FD is working their own jobs, and sometimes it will be the FD, especially when the PD is busy. It works itself out most of the time. In the 80's, ESU used to run with paramedics to provide ALSFR also. That gave way to more tactical responsibilties today but they were always first responders to MVA's.

And coming from the OPPOSITE direction. Usually you get taken out by someone going the same way... WOW!

Add Hepatitis to the list. We had an officer contract Hep-C and succumb many years later and it was deemed a line of duty death. Personally, and this is not intended to diminish the sacrifices made by those who die as a result of an illness contracted on the job, I would like to see a distinction between line of duty deaths and occupational deaths. Someone contracting a job-related illness is an occupational hazard but is different than being killed in the line of duty (during a fire, killed by a suspect, etc.). I'm not saying that occupational deaths shouldn't receive benefits but I think the sacrifice is different and we should keep "line of duty deaths" on-duty and directly due to the performance of their duties. That's just me though...