Today a fire hose... Tomorrow a subpoena

This is kind of interesting. In the city of Petoskey, most all the firefighters and police officers are cross trained to do each other’s jobs, plus they are all certified as EMTs (emergency medical technicians) or even higher - EMT specialists and EMT paramedics.
Bet you’re feeling safer already. Whether it’s a fire, a robbery, or a heart attack, you’re basically covered no matter who shows up.
The transition to this cross training began in 1988, the idea coming from the city manager, who had just moved from Glencoe, Illinois. He was joined by the public safety director from the same city, where the firefighters and police officers had all been cross-trained, according to Public Safety Department Director G. Mike Vargo.
“The time was right. At about the same time, we lost the fire chief. The police chief was retiring; the fire chief had a heart attack and passed away, and we needed both,” said Vargo, who was a supervisor of lieutenants at the time.
The police officers found it easier to make the transition than the firefighters, primarily because the additional training was far less rigorous. The police officer had to take classes three or four nights a week plus every other Saturday. But the fire fighter had to earn at least an associate’s degree in criminal justice, as well as complete a 16-week course at a police academy, which was a rigorous boot camp with military type of training.
Only one firefighter made the switch and it took him two years. Many of the firefighters became auxiliary officers to the police force, learning to cordon off crime scenes, going on medical runs, and directing traffic. Now just one person on the 20-man force is not cross trained–a firefighter who is at retirement age.
Does this approach save money?
“I don’t really think you could put a cost savings on this, but it is a better utilization of personnel,” Vargo said. “We don’t have anybody sleeping in the fire station at night. He stays awake from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and is responsible for the fire station.”
“If we get a fire call, he drives the fire truck, and then everybody else shows up. At night time, the same thing applies, but he doesn’t have a sleep shift. He doesn’t have to get dressed. He is ready to go, and he serves as back-up for the road patrol. He takes the fire truck and shows up in police uniform. So he’s an extra and he has the pumper if he needs it.”
This approach definitely means more risk for an officer, who deals with a trifecta of fire, crime, and medical emergencies (exposure to blood-borne pathogens, for example). “We never used to go on the medical runs; we might show up and stand around, carry a stretcher. Now we’ve got the blood pressure cuffs, the oxygen, all the first aid supplies, assist with CPR. When there’s a medical run, we go there, but we don’t transport the patient,” Vargo said.
Has anyone died/been injured during the course of duty?
“Oh yeah, both ways. Police work, we’ve had injuries, fire injuries–I don’t think anymore than what we normally have.”
Vargo said the biggest difficulty has been to get citizens to understand why the fire truck is in front of JC Penney, for example, when there’s no fire there.
“Maybe the officer at the fire station needed to serve a subpoena or interview somebody there, or it was a medical emergency, someone fell down. Some people thought, there must be a death, it must be something terrible. But no. It was hard for the general public to understand this.”
The system has also made it more difficult for women to get on the force. In fact, all 20 public safety officers are men.
“We’ve had some women apply, we had them test, but now they have to pass both fire and police, and it’s much more difficult. You have to do fire, put on the air pack, search rooms, climb ladders, it’s more physically arduous. Then there’s a physical fitness test–running, sit-ups and push-ups.”
Although many cities across Michigan have public safety departments, only a few have cross-trained as police officers, firefighters and EMTs, according to Dave King, spokesman for the Commission on Law Enforcement Standards.
“This cross-training was a trend about 25 years ago, there was a lot of interest in that. But I wouldn’t say that it’s a trend today. Law enforcement is complex, and firefighting–and this is coming from the eyes and mind of someone standing on the outside looking in–firefighting is a tough, complex job as well. There’s more to it than manning the hose. It’s dangerous, and when you look at law enforcement duties, what an officer on the street needs to know, it’s pretty all consuming.”
“It’s a very broad body of knowledge that police officers have to master, and essential skills such as driving, self defense, firearms skills, trying to maintain some level of fitness. It’s quite extraordinary to add the fire duties to that, to know what kind of fire you’re dealing with, the best ways to extinguish, how the fire is going to behave, how to make entry into buildings. And then you’re talking about rescues, water rescues and ice rescues. We’re covering a lot of ground. Many law enforcement agencies decided to circle their wagons around the broad duties they already had. But this (cross-training) does work for some towns.”

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