AFS1970

Sounds to me like this was all political. However the 10-code vs. plain language debate has recently come to the forefront nationally. I know at work we all got a memo with an attached article stating that FEMA wanted police departments to stop using codes. Stamford PD adopted this as policy, although there are many slips from people that still use codes (both our older 10 codes and our newer NIBRS codes). What was interesting is that there was an article I saw on a firefighting news site a short while later where FEMA told a group of Police Chiefs that it was ok to use codes because the security concerns outweighed the interoperability issues. Oddly enough we didn't all get that article in our mailboxes. Now Police and Fire are different agencies all together but lets remember that codes were introduced to free up the air, and keep secrets. In this day and age of higher call volume and homeland security, both of these are still valis reasons to use codes. Either way, a simple mistake was probably not grounds for suspension of any kind, let alone one so long in duration.

I guess this is the best place for my first post. I'm Alan, 2nd Captain with the Belltown VFD in Stamford (CT). Been a Volunteer for almost 10 years. Been Certified as an EMT for 11 years. For full time work I'm a Public Safety Dispatcher for Stamford's Emergency Communication Center, been at that just over 17 years. I've been an Advisor with our city's Explorer Post for about 12 years. As if all that wasn't buffy enough, 4 years ago I started working part time as an Armed Security Officer. And just like most of the folks in my generation, I grew up watching Jonny & Roy, which probably had alot to do with all this.