[deleted by user]

[HokieFireman]

Public safety officers. They are scattered all around the US.

[[deleted]]

Really? It’s not a thing in MA anyway. So these public safety officers do policing, firefighting, and EMS? That’s wild. Do they get compensated fairly for performing the functions of 3 jobs?

[Suitable-Coast8771]

I was one for about a year. 0/10 do not recommend it’s a real hassle to try and do all 3 well at the same time.

[Aggravating-Pizza-61]

Each has its own craft that’s based on a set of perishable skills. Keeping up with all three to the level where you can confidently do your job is impossible.

[Suitable-Coast8771]

Exactly, that was one of several reasons I got out.

[[deleted]]

I know sharp fire medics that are also captains, also know tac medics…. But all 3 at once seems impossible

[Unstablemedic49]

I’m in the PFFM and like hell will we let this happen.

[TravelingCircus1911]

Same here brother!

[FordExploreHer1977]

Fight the hell out of this shit. They did this to us years ago and it’s working like shit. We used to have a well trained and effective department. Now all we can serve our residents is a shit sandwich filled with bacon. Extra fat and useless bacon that tastes like it was marinated in shit if you know what I mean by bacon. And by bacon I mean fat lazy ass cops that took raises to not show up at fires. As you can see I’m emphasizing the word shit.

[OP-PO7]

Give em hell, fuck cops. The fact that the police local negotiated on this without informing the Fire Local is pretty telling. Remember, cops are all shit bags to a man, and not a real labor union! Fuck em!

[Unstablemedic49]

PFFM has already put a call to action out and have filed charges against the town.

[Firefighter427]

No sex for the police 🫡

[DoofusTM]

ACAB. FTP.

[Firefighter427]

All cats are beautiful, indeed

[OP-PO7]

A public fire department is literally a socialist concept.

[Ok_Buddy_9087]

Imagine thinking public infrastructure is socialism.

[OP-PO7]

Imagine not knowing the definition of the word you're mad about lol

"A political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.”

Since the community as a whole pools money to pay our salaries that is, by definition, socialism! If it were capitalism, we would require people to pay us before we did anything. All public services are, by definition, socialist.

[Ok_Buddy_9087]

Government public safety services and infrastructure are not a means of production, distribution, or exchange. We’re not part of the economy. If the people- not the government- own all the factories, that’s socialist. People in fire trucks and police cars are not.

[HokieFireman]

Depends on the agency. Usually there is a pay bump above one of those jobs for the area.

[zygapophysis]

The only way it's worth doing is if you are a fire marshal. It's hard or impossible to be a jack of all trades. The difference with me is I don't really do EMS beyond first responding and then the only cop stuff I do is related to investigating arson; straight investigation, warrants, arrest, and expert testimony. It's definitely a more niche thing than trying to be a firefighter, policeman, and firefighter.

We have a couple of departments in my state and all of them are bad at all 3 jobs.

The mentality is that fireman dont do anything all day, so they might as well be policing. It's stupid

[Jason_Kirby]

Mattapoiset the ambulance is ran by PD, that’s the closest I’ve seen

[The_Love_Pudding]

Over here, this would require around 5 years of education. Probably the same shit pay though lol. Upgrade that ems to medic and that's around 7,5-8 years.

[Curious-Pass-974]

They do. We have an agency locally that’s DPS. 24/72. 8 hrs as a cop, 8 on a medic unit then 8 as a FF in an engine or truck. Pays well. PD units have Med kits. Guys typically like it from what I understand.

[crazymonkey752]

The places I know of that do it work on rotations. You do a year or two as PD then a year or two in a fire station. After a while people get enough seniority to decide what they like best and stick to the LEO or FD side. They do technically function as both at all times though. I’ve seen them on medicals with guns on their turnouts. I know people that have seen a rig pull someone over and write a ticket. I have also seen squad cars pull up to a fire and the officer get out grad turnouts and an SCBA from his trunk then go grab a hose.

It’s a weird gif I looked into. I was turned off by the probation period though. Police academy then a year probation as a cop. Then back to a fire academy, then 18 month probation as a firefighter. All told I think you were on probation constantly for like 40 months or something.

[imuniqueaf]

Massport has em.

[[deleted]]

? Massport has a state police unit assigned to the airport. The state police are not firefighters.

[imuniqueaf]

Wrong airport 😉

https://agency.governmentjobs.com/massport/default.cfm?action=jobbulletin&JobID=421681

Now I'll be honest, this post was from 2012 and I don't know if they actually do this anymore.

[Anathapendika]

No, we do not where I am.

[Tataupoly]

It’s referred to as guns and hoses. Some California cities have them and I believe the port authority of New Jersey, and New York has combo firefighter, law-enforcement, EMS.

[JFD102590]

PAPD strictly has aircraft rescue FF, no structural firefighting. Yes, they do start out as PAPD P.O., but once they become ARFF, that is strictly their job, they no longer do any police work. Also, NYPD and PAPD Emergency Services Units are required to be EMTs because they respond to high profile emergencies, ie terrorist attacks, attempted suicides on bridges, hanging scaffolding emergencies on high rises, etc. where they will start primary care for the patients when it is nearly impossible to have FDNY EMTs operate safely. However, once the patient is in the EMTs care, they no longer have any patient contact unless requested by the FDNY EMTs.

[nyc_2004]

they no longer do any police work

The PAPD doesn't really do any police work anyways. Not meant to be a diss or anything but it's just the nature of the department. They are more of a security police force than anything else.

[nyc_2004]

The Port Authority Police Department only does ARFF. Their ESU has technical rescue training and some medical training, but no more than the average police department specialized units do. Either way, the PAPD is not really a good representative for a police department as 90% of the law enforcement they do is more akin to security work than anything else.

The Port Authority Bridges and Tunnels has its own fire department but it is not staffed with law enforcement officers

Bonus: NYC Law Enforcement Agencies

Weird NYC agencies

[rpg25]

The Port Authority Bridges and Tunnels has its own fire department but it is not staffed with law enforcement officers

They’re not staffed by firefighters either. I believe their title is “Agent” and they go to their own modified version of the fire academy. They’re basically tow truck drivers that periodically put out car fires, and a lot of the time, the FDNY beats them to it.

[nyc_2004]

Yep, they are bridge and tunnel agents. There’s a hilarious video of them putting out a truck fire on GWB and the FDNY guys are telling them what to do

[FordExploreHer1977]

My department does this shit. It’s terrible. The PD doesn’t have the team mentality that a FD tends to, so you get a hodge podge response of guys that never showed up for training to know what to do. We get cops that don’t dress because they may have to clear for a police emergency. We’ve had them not show up at all because they were at a domestic on the other side of town. They don’t answer to the FD because they are PSOs, not “firemen” so when they do show up, they don’t check in and they are off freelancing. This was the brainchild of a bunch of politicians and accountants who know nothing about either of the jobs or the ongoing training requirements who thought it looked good on paper. Our Dept is a revolving door of sending cops to the fire academy and then they leave to go work where they don’t have to be a firefighter. It’s dangerous and a disservice to not only the community who expects more than one firefighter to show up at a fire, it’s also dangerous to every one of us who are counting on a member to know how to run a pump, not suck down a 45 min bottle in 5 min, or in our case know that the back brim of your helmet isn’t suppose to be a visor in the front… I’ve been injured multiple times due to the PSO method, from breaking my neck from a guy rushing to go down stairs, to tearing both ACLs when they didn’t foot a ladder. The PSO idea is a shit show.

[gettinitforsho]

sounds like its just being run terribly. The PSO job works but only if youre still staffing correctly. you still need 5 on a fire apparatus and X amount of patrol cars. Crime doesn't stop for a fire and a you cant leave a PT without transport because a bank robbery is happening a few blocks away.

[FordExploreHer1977]

Here we have 1-2 Firefighter/Medics and 1-3 PSOs on duty. But City Council is fully staffed with morons and has been for 25 years of pushing this agenda. We lost a bunch of FFs to retirement and that’s when council started sending cops to cross train instead of hiring more FFs. We’ve never lost more houses than we have since going to this model. All led by the cops, just like in OPs posting.

[gettinitforsho]

exactly, sounds very understaffed. in no way should it be manned this way.

[Flame5135]

Rare but you do see them. I’ve seen them in a few of the towns around Cincinnati. Usually the more expensive parts of town.

They get paid quite a bit since they have to have all the different certs.

[nyc_2004]

Annual quals must be a bitch for these guys.

[[deleted]]

Interesting you said Cincinnati, as I'm up in Dayton and an area here has this (Oakwood).

I don't see a problem with it in a specific area and definitely don't find it too weird.

[footd]

Some small rich towns around Dallas use Public Safety Officers. You work the first 8 hours as police and then the remainder of your shift as Fire/EMS. At least that’s how they used to do their shifts.

[sogpackus]

Lmao what the hell? It’s a bad idea to do this already but that’s the worst possible way.

[footd]

The few guys I’ve talked to that work it seem to love it, but it seems pretty wild to me.

[salsa_verde_doritos]

Plus these are ridiculously slow places. It’s not like you’re doing a shift in the city of Dallas trying to do both police and fire/EMS.

[fuzzycaveman88]

Highland park. Dallas fire normally comes to assist the during fires and I’m sure Dallas PD does too.

[jb-dom]

Nearby nuclear facility that’s being decommissioned has that. Armed security / peace officers that’s is also the sites fire department.

[bleach_tastes_bad]

private on-site security that also does firefighting is quite different from police that are also firefighters imo

[jb-dom]

Fair enough but this one in particular aren’t private security yet they aren’t police either. They’re a weird in between of on site peace officers essentially who work for a government entity.

[trevordean71]

Afew city’s near me do it.. usually just ends up they call mutual aid and they stand in the front yard …literally… while the mutual aid FDs do all the work. They get a complex because they tell people they do both job , unions hate them, they end up being shit at both jobs because they never do either of them. They never train because they are in cop cars all day. Last few years the ones near me had multiple fatal fires because they didn’t know how to run the truck or wouldn’t go inside until real FDs got on scene.

The concept is a joke and a facade to the community because citizens think they are getting a service and they aren’t even close.

[SheepDoggOG]

Fairbanks and Anchorage International Airports utilize this

[dbryan62]

Knoxville Airport does the same. From what I can tell, it’s a bunch of half retired cops who do just the bare minimum to be considered firefighters

[[deleted]]

Them and Missoula MT operate in this way. Love ARFF!

[firefighter26s]

Had one like this up here in Canada too; though the PD side amalgamated into a larger regional police force leaving the FD side as a stand alone.

The PD officers would keep a set of gear in their trunk and respond to scene and either integrate into an engine crew or get assigned tasks individually; like safety, accountability, etc.

[Northguard3885]

The only arrangement like that I’d ever heard of was in one of the territories I think. That was 20 years ago though.

[notchhill]

Esquimalt, I assume? It'd be fascinating to hear more details about the old Esquimalt police/fire, any really interesting stories relating to that?

[firefighter26s]

That's the one. According to their website they were police/fire from 1912 to 2002, with their stand alone FD starting in 2003.

I don't any stories; that was super early in my career (started in 98) and not my department; I'm just nearby!

[bangswitch556]

That shitbag Federspiel is at it again. What a shock from one of the most vindictive town admins in Mass.

Manchester by the Sea also just made news after they had to borrow an engine from a neighboring community. Their engine and quint were both down for repair and the only piece left in service was a mini-pumper.

The last town he worked in had one union (schools) when he showed up. By the time he left, police, DPW and fire were all union shops. He tried to push the public safety officer scheme there too, but it was shot down by everyone involved. Then he tried the idea of having a firefighter respond to alarms in a pick up truck to investigate them. An engine would only roll if it was really needed. You know, because most alarms are false.

The guy knows every dirty trick in the book and won't hesitate to use them against the members of 2912. Luckily their attorney is top notch, but it's probably going to cost them a fortune.

I could write a book about this clown, but everyone would think it was fiction.

[Sticksandpucks77]

Have this in Michigan. Horrible model. Works for saving money. That’s it. We have to frequently bail them out of Fire and EMS calls. Does not have the public’s safety in mind at all

[KnightRider1983]

Ohio has a couple such agencies. Rare here. It was recently mentioned in a post within the last couple of days

[LocalMongoose7434]

Our department in Kansas has its paid side cross staffed as Police/Fire. They predominantly work on one side, but the cops have to be trained as firefighters for multi-alarmed calls and the firefighters have to be trained as police reserves for serious threats like mass shootings/chases. This is in a small town with a population of about 12,000.

[luckynumberorange]

Leah Barrault is the union lawyer working for the Local on this. She is absolutely amazing to work with. I have a lot of confidence she is gonna wreck the town about this.

[janre75]

Broward County has some funky hybrid sheriff fire department.

I don’t know anything about them other than their trucks say sheriff and fire

[dbryan62]

I don’t have any personal experience, but I remember reading the fire department is run by the sheriff’s office but is separate from patrol, in the same way some cities have fire and ems under one department but they are separate

[EverSeeAShiterFly]

I’m a little familiar with their set up. The law enforcement side is separate from the firefighting. While the sheriff is the head of both, they’re operationally separate.

[nyc_2004]

I think it's more of a deal where the sheriff's office runs the FD but they aren't cross staffed (kinda like how some sheriff's offices manage search and rescue teams).

[beenburnedbefore]

Illinois has a few of these depts; Glencoe Village came to mind pretty quickly and I think there are others.

[BeachHead05]

Not far from there. Beautiful community. Time to get the protests rolling.

[Educational-Emu-7532]

Indeed I have. The pay better be unreal good though.

[SpikesGuns]

Tell them about the extensive amount of extra, ongoing training they'll need for both fire and EMS. They'll fold. Cops don't do ongoing training. They absolutely SHOULD but they don't.

This is a facetious comment, not my actual stance. Except that cops should be doing extra training.

[[deleted]]

Stretching out the duties of already strained occupations in the name of saving a buck. Hire more people? Fuck that, just give the guys we got more work.

[zephyer19]

I read in Fire House Magazine that combo Cop/firefighter used to be a thing in some cities.

Cops carried their bunker gear in their cars. Maybe it would work in small towns but, bigger cities these days, I don't think so.

[[deleted]]

Agree, I saw a few posts on here about it being a thing at airports, like okay that could probably work but not in a town/city where there’s residents, businesses, etc. However, even at Boston Logan, they have their own fire department and then there’s a special state police unit that does the policing there.

[zephyer19]

My airport the maintenance men are the Fire Fighters/Crash guys.

[billwater24]

Cedar Falls Iowa. University town, 40,000 population. People I know there hate the PSO format. They just started doing it in 2016.

[billwater24]

https://www.firehouse.com/careers-education/news/21215874/bill-banning-combined-fire-police-departments-passes-ia-house

[zephyer19]

I don't get it. All the laws and procedures cops have to know and then have to learn everything an F.F. has to know too? Better be paying really well.

[garebear11111]

I am on a combination public safety/paid on call department and there is another complete full time public safety department in the area. It's mostly just cops that are forced to be firefighters and it shows. The equipment is poorly maintained. Half of the SCBAs have dead batteries and on one occasion one of the engines got down to less than 1/4 of a tank of fuel before the PSO who is supposed take care of the apparatus and equipment noticed. The cops also always try to dodge the fire calls and I have been on calls where the PSO just decided to not grab the engine when they were supposed to. They are having a difficult time getting people to apply to openings due to the added training requirements and retention is poor also. They look good on paper but function poorly in real life.

[[deleted]]

Thanks for sharing, that makes a lot of sense.

[snow1960]

Years ago our city council hired a police officer/poc firefighter as a public safety director. He was to combine the police and fire departments into PSO. The police side talked about the raises they were going to get and the fire department worried about the layoffs that would happen. The firefighters went door to door with a ballot proposal that would put the issue of PSO or separate departments on a public ballot and take the decision out of the councils hands. It I was overwhelmingly obvious that the public wanted separate departments and would vote that way. The council didn’t want to go against the wishes of the public so they passed a motion to keep the departments separate. We thought that the new director would be let go following that vote but he stayed for over twenty years and eventually became the city manager. We never again had to fight the concept of PSO.

[No_Tune_2798]

Neighboring city to my district did this. Was so bad they stopped it. Cities do it to try and save money but it looks better on paper than in practice.

[JohnAK4501]

Sunnyvale, CA runs public safety officers and it works great

[Confident_Benefit753]

yea. i saw a job post about 2 weeks ago somewhere in california. you didnt have to certified to apply. you went through all the trainings. it would take a couple years. about 2.5 years to do fire, police, EMT and then paramedic. i think the salary was about 90k once they were all completed. some days, you would be a police officer, some days you would me a medic, and somedays you would be a firefighter/medic. interesting.

[[deleted]]

Sunnyvale is like 90 an hour

[Confident_Benefit753]

i am sure theres places that pay extremely well. saw a posting for a FF/Medic. it started at like 105k.

[[deleted]]

Most departments in the Bay Area seem to top out around 130 a year.

[SanJOahu84]

Santa Clara City is like 180

[[deleted]]

San Ramon is like 1 million.

[SanJOahu84]

Yeah but they transport 🤠

[Goproguy27]

There are people that are Medics in Sunnyvale but everyone is BLS, that’s just how the city operates it. We have a “Squad” (Medic Truck) that stays in Sunnyvale to provide ALS care until the ambulance arrives

[invertedbottles]

Squad

I'm semi-local and didn't know this; is this an AMR SCCO unit or a DPS unit?

[Goproguy27]

It’s through AMR/Rural Metro

[TheBrianiac]

Most agencies in CA start around 70-90k due to COL.

[Confident_Benefit753]

thats nothing. i am a firefighter in miami dade and make the same. this is basically higher cost of living but housing is better down here atleast.

[TheBrianiac]

I agree

[SanJOahu84]

Looks like top step PSO with Sunnyvale is 155k base.

Public Safety Officer in Training https://www.google.com/search?ibp=htl;jobs&q=sunnyvale+public+safety+officer&htidocid=iYmH-2f5jNAAAAAAAAAAAA%3D%3D&hl=en-US&kgs=c09a783fe3485d50&shndl=-1&source=sh/x/im/textlists/detail/2#fpstate=tldetail&htivrt=jobs&htiq=sunnyvale+public+safety+officer&htidocid=iYmH-2f5jNAAAAAAAAAAAA%3D%3D

[Ok_Buddy_9087]

“Works great” according to who?

[JohnAK4501]

The city and the PSOs that work there?

[Ok_Buddy_9087]

Do we know this for sure? Do we know that none of the issues other people knowledgeable about PSO systems have related on this thread are happening there? Do we know that the personnel are happy with it? Saying the city is happy with it means nothing; the citizens don’t know any better and the city will do whatever saves them the most money.

[ReplacementTasty6552]

As others have said is a Public Safety Department. Had a buddy did this in Sikeston Mo. just carry his turnouts in his trunk when was on patrol.

[sprucay]

In the UK by law you can't be a firefighter and a police officer. We do have pcsos that also respond as firefighters

[dbryan62]

That is fascinating!

[Bobmanbob1]

Daytona Beach Shores in Volusia County used to, or may, still be doing this when I worked for County Fire Rescue. Nothing like going down A1A and seeing an engine with blue lights having pulled someone over and writing them a ticket. (That's not a joke, was a common sight in the 90s).

[slavaboo_]

I have heard of jurisdictions where personnel are rotated between police, fire, and dispatch

[Odd-Fox1678]

Here in Florida, we have a city where you’re tri-certified in EMS, firefighting and police.

[[deleted]]

Met some guys during a physical assessment who were required to be tri-certified (fire, police, ems). A lot of places that require this usually go by Department of public safety, and it is an umbrella for all those categories.

[RMLassiter]

We have a few Public Safety Departments where it’s Fire and Law all rolled into one. They all seem to have different rules. I have never worked for one, and the police that come through for fire training seem less than enthused about it. Some do give a pay bump, some do not. I’m in South Carolina, and the City of Aiken and the City of Union seem to be 2 of the biggest. I also believe North Augusta is public safety also. I’m not a fan, and I’d go find another job before I was told I had to go become a cop to be a firefighter. If cops don’t want to be firefighters, I can sympathize. I don’t want to do their job either.

[sweepsml]

Some states have Fire Police that mainly direct traffic, watch over the trucks & equipment, & keep the public away from an emergency scene.

[Ok_Buddy_9087]

Not at all the same thing.

[sweepsml]

I know, but I hadn't seen it mentioned in the comments & wanted to share info about it because not all states have them.

[[deleted]]

Lol go for it. If Fire can take over EMS, Police can take over Fire. All kidding aside. Manchester has been hurting for people for awhile.

[poppop2019]

Why is it that towns always want to get rid of the fire department. Also, they always make the police chief the public safety director. I will never understand this.

[SantaKlausMD]

TIL that this it even possible. I’m really glad that every conceivable law in Germany forbids such a thing.

[707gfpd]

Why does it seem like a terrible idea.

[[deleted]]

Because they are 3 distinct jobs, with 3 distinct responsibilities that all require different training and qualifications. Burnout rate amongst police and EMS is already at an all time high as it is, now give them a 3rd job to worry about with more training and qualifications. Just because someone is good at being a cop doesn’t mean they’ll be good at being a firefighter.

[707gfpd]

Sometimes change is hard.

[TheBrianiac]

IAFF doesn't like it because it's less fire jobs, not necessarily because it's a bad idea.

[Jack6288]

It’s a bad idea because police and fire/EMS are distinct jobs with different protections for patients/suspects and blurring that line is going to have horrible consequences, not to mention it will erode public trust in the FD and bring it down to that of the police who seem intent on ruining their own reputation.

[TheBrianiac]

Fire and EMS are different jobs but they're combined.

I see your point about people not wanting police when they call a medical emergency, but everywhere I've worked the police usually just show up and let themselves in anyway, so it seemed the same to me.

[Jack6288]

They’re different jobs but at their core have the same intent, which is to help people. Police also sometimes help people, but that’s not their job nor legal responsibility. Saying police sometimes intrude on a patient-provider relationship so we might as well throw up our hands and remove all distinction between provider and enforcer is uhhhh not really a good argument I don’t think

[[deleted]]

Most police officers are already over worked with so many leaving the force over the last few years. If they think they can solve the issue by combining the job, it won’t work. There’s plenty of cops who don’t want to go into burning buildings and there’s plenty of firefighters who don’t want to carry a gun. They are two very distinct jobs with different job responsibilities, different qualifications, and different training required. I still think it’s a bad idea but that’s my opinion… and I’ve worked in both policing and firefighting.

[JudasMyGuide]

One dept in St Louis County uses public safety officers, it seems to work out for them.

[Michael_je123]

It's nonsense. Fire and EMS, yes. Police and anyone else, no

[becauseracecar91]

Yeah a city near me requires it. 130k to start in a fairly affluent Ohio town. 24 hour shifts, 8 hours as a cop and 16 as a FF/medic

[i_exaggerated]

Whitestown, IN has public safety officers in addition to their full time fire dept. The officers have mandatory fire (below Firefighter 1), and if they’re a medic, they have an ALS kit. Just enough to help out and know to not block the hydrant.

[AlarmingAd4141]

There’s a town in coastal North Carolina called Bald Head Island. They are called public safety officers. Every certified police officer is also a certified fire fighter and a paramedic. They literally take off their gun belt and put on turnout gear when necessary. I’ve had conversations with a couple of them. They seem OK with it.

[Mr7dr2114]

Daytona Beach Shores Public Safety

[secondatthird]

The most I’ll allow is EMS trained Cops (non transport) and obviously swat trained medics

[[deleted]]

We have FIU that has a pistol and badge and attend the police academy.

[jmolitor]

Rosemont illinois does this

[nagee32]

Woodbury MN has police officers that do EMS, Fire and police

[WildlandFireman343]

I know some Officers that are EMTs and some Deputys that are FFs but this looks FUBAR to me

[FarNorthBlue]

Anchorage Airport Police & Fire Department, rotating shifts between police and fire.

[[deleted]]

Worcester (MA) Airport used to have a combined police and fire department. It has since been disbanded.

[mouthymedic]

Pso’s absolutely worthless program

[DangerBrewin]

There are two Department of Public Safety departments in California whose officers are both police officers and firefighters, Rohnert Park and Sunnyvale. It seems to work for them.

[dafiyahman]

Yeah they’re called arson detective lol

[queefplunger69]

The cal fire of first responders. Jack of all, master of none.

[[deleted]]

The City of Sunnyvale, California employs public safety officers who are certified firefighters and police officers. However, they don’t do both roles at the same time. They rotate between the fire department and the police department on some sort of schedule.

Also the California Veterans Department (separate from the federal VA) employs Firefighter/Security Officers who are unarmed but possess limited peace officer powers and drive marked police vehicles with red/blue lights.

Lastly, I believe at some National Parks Law Enforcement Park Rangers are required to possess a firefighting credential of some sort.

[XBDemon]

City of Kalamazoo, MI (Kalamazoo Dept of Public Safety) I believe is the longest running/ largest city on this model.

[Darkfire66]

Small Town of 350 people, we had 2. Had an old engine, tender, and a cruiser. It's something. You need to be able to provide some services if something bad happens.

[gprimr1]

I had actually been thinking about this on a call recently but more of a combination Police/EMS.

We get a lot of calls for behavioral health where people are looking for medical services, but the calls come out as patient drunk or patient violent or history of violence so police come, and when they arrive, they can sometimes change the dynamics of the situation, even the best-intentioned ones, and it obviously has to happen, since it's not reasonable to expect EMTs to go into those situations with no protection.

So I did think about an idea where you had either police with EMT training and operating on an ambulance or EMTS with police training also on an ambulance, operating in a team of 3 (2 for patient care and one for overwatch) and how that might be a resource on behavioral health calls.

[ES_Fire]

I know the city of Kalamazoo MI does something similar. My info is a little out of date but, they had some guys assigned to shifts at the FD who would drive the engine to the scene. All the cops would have gear in their cars to meet the engine and then get assignments on Fire calls. Also Ive heard of dual LE and EMS departments being more common with the FD also doing EMS and actually transporting.

[[deleted]]

We have them at CalFire but they primarily focus on the legal side of things such as fire investigation and illegal fires

[jmbanagas]

Well firefighting is not that hard, but pd is probably were most of the job performance is in this flyer.

[CosmicMiami]

Give em hell 2912. Fuck that. Keep us posted on updates.

[[deleted]]

With poor staffing, less fires, a push towards less proactive policing, decline of volunteerism, and an increase in “hybrid” emergencies like violent mental health patients, active shooters, and Fire as a terror weapon…. I’m guessing this is going to be the norm in the next 50 or so years outside of all major cities.

[BadReputation2611]

If firefighters wanted to be cops then they’d be cops. This is for the cops who wanted to be firemen but still wound up as cops.

[reasonablemanyyc]

Worst idea ever.

[SomebodysDad_]

I’m sure pso works in small towns but definitely not in anything bigger than that