Anyone Catch America's Most Wanted

[JM15 386]

I was watching AMW tonight and they were doing a "to catch a predator" type of sting in Suffolk. When one of the men was caught a bar came up on the bottom that said Volunteer Fireman. This is another blackeye for the fire service. The one thing that bugs me is that they highlighted the fact that he was a volunteer firefighter when it was completely unrelated. Anyone have any comments?

[Guest seanc]

that always happens, even on the small stuff, i have heard of this happening, someone would get arrested or do something small but it always gets linked to the fire department, no matter what it was for, even if it occurred in a different town.

[irishfire2491 24]

We are hurting our selves. If your are going to go do something stupid, take the fire shirts and buff gear off. The public is the one we are in service for. There are way to many black eyes out there on the fire service and it is making it way to TV (RESCUE ME) and that is where the public gets their ideas about the fire service. NOT GOOD!

[antiquefirelt 994]

Much as I hated to see the Volunteer Firefighter byline thrown on there, I imagine Doctor's, Lawyers, computer programmers, cops, etc also hate it when one of these peice's of sh*t turn out to one of them too. It is somewhat pertinent that people who hold the public's trust can also be evil.

We need to do a better job of keeping the criminals out, whether they're thieves, repeat offender druck drivers or child molesters. If we want to continue to be trusted by the public we need to be better. As Irish said, how often do you hear negative comments about Coed Naked Firefighting T's or Big Johnson, or how about the FFer's out there running red or blue lights and driving like idiots? As a whole our F.S. make-up is probably similar to most of society 1% this, 14% that, and so on.

Edited April 29, 2007 by antiquefirelt

[RWC130 594]

Any actions good or bad by a member of a Police, Fire, or EMS agency will bring attention to that agency when something happens.

Firefighter - Rescue a trapped victim GREAT!

XXX Firefighter is the BEST! Gets award.

Police Officer - Arrest a major criminal

XXX Police Officer is the BEST! Gets award.

EMT/Paramedic - Save a little boy drowning victim

XXX EMT/Paramedic is the BEST! Gets award.

This is ALL great that brings Positive Press to that agency and

ALL Firefighters, Police Officers, EMT's/Paramedics

HOWEVER........ You get ONE bad apple such as above mentioned

incident on Long Island you bring a BLACK EYE to all members of

Emergency Services. It's happened in Westchester too.

Not so long ago a Firefighter was arrested and on News12

he was led out in handcuffs with his FD T-Shirt on. NICE!

It's just the same when you are responding to a Fire or EMS call

with your Blue or Green Light on and you ride someone's

rear or almost run them off the road passing them over a double

yellow line. Yes, it happens. Any action taken?

USE YOUR HEAD!

You represent your agency all the time.

YOU are in the Public Eye ALWAYS!

The fact that they didn't just bust John Doe makes it a much better story

when it's John Doe who is a Firefighter, Police Officer, EMT, Paramedic

SAD!

HOW MANY VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENTS OR VOLUNTEER AMBULANCE CORPS DO A CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK ON NEW APPLICANTS?????