It Seems Like Most Of The Problems in Westchester.......

[x635 4,066]

Now that I look at Westcheser from the outside and living in an area that is extremly dedicated and well funded for emergency services, it brings a new perspective to me. The more I read, the more things don't make sense. Where are the real priorities? It seems like many agencies concentrate more on themselves and their problems instead of focusing on how they can deliver better service to their "customers".

Many of the Fire, Police, and EMS agencies in Westchester County (for the purpose of this discussion) share the same problems.

How many millions of dollars and time wasted by putting temporary band aids on problems? At what point will people realize that the answer to some of the common problems is to address them in a unified fashion?

While consolidation may not be viable right now, working together should be. Setting one standard for all agencies to voluntarily comply to would be a start. Of many things it would initially impact would be interoperability, something that is talked about but most people it seems think that interoperabilty means just radios. Radios that work together are only a very small part of it.

[Bull McCaffrey 162]

Its sad that in this day and age agencies that work in tandem, side by side can't even communicate with each other when the turds hit the fan. It's a good thing you were able to make the lateral transfer to Texas. It's one less thing you have to worry about.

[Group42 5]

The root of all the problems in Westchester can be completely eliminated with the removal of one single thing, county-wide.

EGOS

[bigrig77 95]

The root of all the problems in Westchester can be completely eliminated with the removal of one single thing, county-wide.

EGOS

Ego's in Westchester? There are no ego's here Just stay out of my little sandbox and it will all be fine.

[PEMO3 523]

The sad part is almost 10 years later no real progress has been made on "inter-operability". There are many agencies with their own inter-operability plans but there is not one true plan of inter-operability. We are no closer now than we were 10 years ago and in many cases with all the additions of new P25 radio systems, MotoTurbos, trunking systems, scrambling, digital encryption, etc, we are further than we ever were.

[wraftery 1,275]

I think a major factor in the lack of shared services and the duplication of services not only in Westchester, but nationwide, is the "My Fire Dept. is better than your Fire Dept." attitude. If you really look, there are a few really good departments nationwide and a lot of bad ones. It would seem fairly simple to try to learn from the good ones and get the bad ones to follow just by example. But nay, that would be too easy. Why? As was mentioned several times already in this thread: EGOS

Try this: Run a multi-department live fire drill with your surrounding brothers... not a major disaster drill, just a bread and butter scenario. If you can't think of one, try a scenario that goes somethng like this:

City A has a major fire going on downtown. You, Department B and Department C are back filling in City A's stations.

A call comes in for a 1 family dwelling with a 1-room fire with occupants unaccounted for. Your department arrives first with an engine and establishes command. In 4 minutes, a ladder from Dept. B arrives, and 3 minutes later, an engine from Dept. C arrives.

Do this again, switching the order in which the companies arrive. Then critique when you are done.

This is what observations should come of this drill:

Command should be established, transferred, etc. smoothly and without difficulty.

Accountability should be adhered to throughout, FAST should be established and maintained.

IC should have his tactics established (e.g. Attack-Search-Vent)

Unity of Command should carry throughout the drill. ( No one but the IC running the show)

At the critique, let the participants talk. They should be saying they are not that far apart and think they should do this kind of drill more often.

If the drill results you get are not in line with my description above, then YOU are probably one of the bad Depts. Give up your ego and go learn something!

If it went well, then do it again and then again with different participants. Hopefully, the word will spread.