Westchester

I think it has become more of an issue of the quality of the people that we are giving drivers licenses to. I would love to see some sort of re-certification when you reach a certain age.

I'd like to see the underlying cause of the problem individually in the various agencies throughout the county. With respect to volunteer coverage waning, well, there are two reasons volunteers stop volunteering-they CAN'T, or they WON'T! Take a look at the rosters of many of these agencies, you'll see a long list of names...then take a look at the coverage rosters, and you'll see a significantly different number of names!
Why is that?! I believe in the volunteer system, and I believe it could work, if managed properly! Unfortunately, in many cases, it isn't the volunteer system that's flawed...it's the management of it.

That video simply highlights the fact that we have no EMS system in Westchester. We have a patchwork of different agencies doing different things with different resources hoping for a positive outcome and despite the best intentions of the people involved, we are nowhere near a solution.
A comprehensive approach is needed to address the problem and institute a true system.
If the six villages in Greenburgh, as an example, continue operating on their own little islands, they will fail. The notion that Irvington will put on per diem personnel for 451 calls a year at a cost of $288 per shift is just not sustainable.

If the six villages all do that the cost is prohibitive. But a town-wide solution would be much more cost effective based on the call volume.
There was also a lot of misinformation in that presentation. "Private services do not do emergency care, they do transport only". Really? Other assertions about the law were questionable and hopefully someone reviews them for IVAC and the village board.
It also baffles me that anyone is still proposing that DPW or other municipal agencies provide drivers during the day instead of fixing the broken EMS system.

Or Officers are bad and Members are giving up. Look what happened in Tarrytown with alligations against a member and some bailing out to join Sleepy Hollow. Is that right. Fix the problem in TVAC and the Members will stay

If she weren't running for mayor, she wouldn't be complaining.

30 minutes for a Priority 5 call as it was first triaged with no available buses in the system and calls waiting is not long. The heat wave is taxing the system. Quinn states that there should be more units out there to handle the call volume and that the system was not prepared. This is the same woman that voted to cut the FDNY & EMS budget and reduce the unit count. I guess it was just lip service until those cuts hit home. They also could have picked this young lady up and put her in the air conditioned SUV that she had waiting and I am sure running to ensure it was kept cool instead of "dragging" her under a tent to keep her cool.

"Quinn was speaking before cameras about the reopening of the controversial E. 91st St. marine transfer station when the 17-year-old girl suddenly dropped to the ground in front of the crowd shortly before noon, witnesses said.
The speaker ran over to the teen, who may have collapsed because of the heat, and began rubbing her arms as a member of Quinn's detail — an NYPD cop who is a trained EMT — began rendering aid to the girl.
"It's going to be okay," Quinn told the girl as another bystander called 911.
They quickly pulled the girl into the shade under a tent as Quinn's security guard grabbed an oxygen tank to help the young woman breathe.
But Quinn finally lost her patience after waiting about 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive and dialed NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly for help.
"We were trying to get through to [FDNY Commissioner] Sal Cassano, and I was unable to get connected," Quinn said."
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/07/chris-quinn-slams-outrageous-30-minute-wait-for-ambulance-after-intern-collaps
Interesting, injured woman faints and is conscious and being treat by "trained personnel" (a police officer who is also an EMT). Triaged as it should and held for higher priority calls due to a 25% spike in call volume. But because it is the Speakers intern there is "outrage " because it should have been a "priority 1" call. Maybe they should hold the arrest, MI, stroke or true unconscious for her intern. This is the same Speaker that would have called for a City Council investigation if an MOS family's call was bumped up. I guess it is justified when you call the Police Commissioners private cell and pull strings to get your low priority call bumped up to a high priority "unconscious" even though the woman was conscious. Maybe the speaker and her intern should have followed her own instructions that she has been handing out since the heat wave started - stay hydrated, in the shade when possible and wear light colored, loose fitting clothing.

In New York State, under Penal Law, Article 35 section 3, you are allowed to defend your home, with deadly physical force if necessary. However, once the person leaves your home, you are not allowed to follow. http://law.onecle.com /new-york/penal/PEN035.20_35.20.html also section 35.15 sub 2i http://law.onecle.com/new-york/penal/PEN035.15_35.15.html

As far a solo police officer, yes they will follow a suspect without back up. It is part of the job. Same for stopping multiple suspects at one time. I have stopped up to 4 suspects, by myself, while calling for back up. May not be tactically sound, but it happens a lot. There are ways to handle this, by taking cover if available, handcuffing suspects, making them get on their knees, laying them out on the ground, or stopping at gunpoint depending on the crime commited and possibility of weapons. NYPD Auxiliary do this now, without a firearm, often with just a radio, and maybe a vest. In 2007, two NYPD Auxiliaries, Officers Eugene Marshalik and Nicholas Pekearo were killed in the line of duty doing this. Keeping a suspect in sight while radioing for back up, as they followed an individual who had just shot and killed two people http://www.nydailynews.com/news/4-die-bloodbath-article-1.216036 and http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/volunteer-city-police-eyes-ears-force-article-1.291634
As far as Zimmerman listening to the dispatcher's instruction to not follow Martin, I think there is no legal basis for him to follow the direction. Zimmerman was a glorified neighborhood watch, not sworn as a peace officer or police officer. Just like a a dispatcher attempting to give CPR instructions over the phone, you can ignore them as a civilian, you have no duty to act, and at that point the instructions are a suggestion. Was Zimmerman overzealous..probably. Was Zimmerman profiling Martin due to race, maybe, although in the 911 call he calls a "f....in punk", not any racial epithets. Did he follow him and call 911...YES, he was legally allowed to do that. You and I can do that as well, it is not required, but legal. Do you as a civilian, have the right to ask a stranger why he is in your neighborhood? yes you do. Does the person have answer you....NO, they can not answer, or can tell you to "go F... yourself" and there is nothing you can do. Now that person your following feels threatened, do they have the right to use physical force against you....No. If they do you, in New York State, you are obligated to attempt to retreat to safety (also in Penal Law article 35), however if you are unable to retreat, you may defend yourself. Using physical force. Deadly Physical Force is not legally allowed unless you believe the other person is using, or about to use Deadly Physical Force against you. That was why Zimmerman got off...he claims he was headed back to his car, when Martin initiated the use of force against him. Unfortunately Martin is dead, and unable to give his side of the story, and very little evidence to back either side.

Great idea--aint going to happen as long as there are organizations that are still in the dark ages as far as firefighting is concerned.
Lowering standards or worse not having any borders on criminal intent. Having taught some firefighter one classes in the last few years I can tell you one thing--- class starts out with 20-25 in the class. Last session maybe 16-17. Very few are willing to take a National firefighters one test, because departments do not require taking one.
communities do not send in untrained police--they send them for 16 weeks of training. Yet theses communities use their AHJ to say the fire department is doing the best it can with what it has-- not reality. minimum of Firefighter one-- SET A STANDARD work toward the STANDARD. Put money in the budgets for training not one million dollar pieces of fire apparatus. Those that have the training should DEMAND more form their departments .
Standards should be set for becoming firefighters/ fire officers/fire chiefs -- plane and simple. While I am at it STANDARDS should be set for any one driving fire department vehicles.

How many departments are just not doing any thing? OSHA/ Physicals/Mask fit testing (cant tell you how many are send to FF1 with out a mask fit or physical but do have the sheet signed by the chief) Bail out systems/ haz mat requirements/ BBP standards. Turnout standards being ignored.
sorry for the rant but this is a great topic and can get a lot of interest-- just believes it falls on deaf ears sometimes.

While I agree whole heartedly about this topic I feel it's just as important to have some degree of high standards to be able to even join a Dept. whether it be Career or Volunteer. Do we really need to be working next to a highly trained criminal? It's time to raise the Bar and not turn the Fire Service into a handout Job. Better Sceening and an Interview process is just as important! JMO.

Absolutely! As I have said in the past the fire does not care if you are receiving a pay check or volunteering your time, it will kill you just the same. The standards and training should be unilateral across the board for every firefighter and officer. You don’t see any difference in the training requirements for career vs. volunteer paramedics and EMT’s!

GZ called 911. It does not really matter what authority the dispatcher has, what I think matters is that GZ was on the phone with what any prudent person would consider a competent authority. That "competent authority" advised him what to do. Whether or not the dispatcher's "orders" are legally binding or not is ridiculous to even consider. He did not heed that advice. The rest is history. Any Security/Neighborhood watch that has any competent level of training would have been trained to listen to the advice of a dispatcher.
My opinion is that this is a case of an armed, poorly trained, plainclothes half-azzed neighborhood watchman who was a police wanna-be, playing cop, sticking his nose where it did not belong, This incident was doomed to go sideways from the beginning.
As for the dispatcher...if he had heeded that advice, we would not be having this conversation now.
This was all my OPINION. I am not going to debate it. I am not going to change my OPINION. Agree or disagree: fine. I will respect that. Have a differing opinion, I am willing to listen. I will probably not agree, but I will not argue or try and change your mind.

Every agency develops its own M/A policy and more often than not those policies don't put patient care first. Besides, just because the medic requests mutual aid doesn't mean your getting an ambulance any faster. I can recall many an overnight as a flycar medic and 60 dispatchers putting tones out essentially begging people to sign on. I think it went something like " 60 to xyz VAC is anyone going to sign on or out there to answer this call?" It got so bad I would have them send me however could drive and I would ride BLS jobs in because it was quicker for me to get back in service and quicker for the patient. That's the sort of thing we are dealing with here.

@ Goose, It's a statewide problem. The state DOH is a governing body that should do something. I believe all they require them to do is answer 1 call a month to maintain there CON. That's what I was told by REMAC. This morning, one of my guys sat in a village waiting 45 minutes for an ambulance. It comes down to the State DOH breaking some balls, and unfortunately, the word needs to get out to local officials because its a violation of their contract (24hr svc for free). We all have solutions, but they cost $$$$. I can solve the local problem. It's a matter of the local volunteers understanding there is a problem, and forgetting about their rank!!!

All forget that the villages I'm talking about are in the the Town od Greenburgh. As we all know village resident pay for ALS service why can"t they pay for a EMS service. Jared from Greenburgh Police has done a great job running his side of ALS/BLS Fly Cars. Why can't Greenburgh run the whole show. Then the Greenburgh Paramedics won't have to do side work for Ossining,Portchester, etc. If Greenburgh sets up area stations in vacant lots or purchase EMS buildings ( like IVAC which owns the building ) they could hire more EMTs/Paramedics. I have researched and done the numbers it could work. My main concern is with the village my family lives in and then the other villages surrounding us.The IVAC board members must go and a cleaning of the house must happen. Afyer talking with some members in IVAC there main problem is within the 4 walls. There seems to be a power struggle there which in turn effects the residents of Irvington

Problem not solved, and more problems created. Again, this is lifted directly from the Fitch study that the county government commissioned in 2008.
Anyone who works in a flycar paramedic system knows that EMD in this county does nothing to appropriately manage resources. I work in three agencies that all receive direct dispatching and EMD from 60 control. The first issue is that 60 control is inadequately staffed to provide consistent EMD - anyone that gets the ipage notification on their phone knows this ( the "no EMD due to call volume / staffing" note at the end of the text), the second issue is that many of the primary PSAPs (local PDs) don't properly transfer the 911 caller to a 60 dispatcher. If that weren't bad enough, a medic gets sent on every job because the paramedic is the only resource in this county that is GUARANTEED TO SHOW UP.
I know i'm not the only one who has been stuck on scene for an hour waiting for a bus or has had to RMA patients that require ALS care because they know they can get to the hospital faster than waiting for the ambulance. All any media outlet would have to do is FOIL 60 control response time records (i'm assuming they keep some sort of log) and boy would they have a field day.
I guess the point i'm trying to make is that the problems are numerous and have metastasized across the county. I look at Putnam & Dutchess (both counties i have previously worked in) and wonder how in the hell did they get everyone on board with centralized dispatching, at least for fire and EMS.

Once again, can't fight the uninformed ignorance that exists!!!! It's NOT about call volume! Do your research!!!

I give Sleepy Hollow Vac credit. You saw the problem and addressed the problem as soon as they can. But for a while Tarrytown Vac was covering Sleepy Hollow. Irvington was covering Tarrytown. Dobbs was covering Irvington. Poor Ardsley not only takes care of Saw Mill and Thruway but has Avalon Retirement Development and still does mutual aide. Hastings is part of the FD and they cover Ardsley and so on.If someone doen't see the problem then Empress or Westchester EMS will take over

As a rivertown resident it's upsetting for me to see the Irvington Volunteer Ambulance Corps slowly go down the tube. In a recent Irvington Work Section on WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2013 - 7:00 P.M. On the village website http://www.irvingtonny.gov/ Captain Ellen Lewit spoke to Village Mayor, Trusees and said the Ambulance Corps is in big trouble. Now lets go back in time where IVAC had 60 or +/-members and about 30 +/- EMTs, and there was a time when they talked about always covering Dobbs Ferry when they could'nt bet a rig out. Well the shoe is on the other foot now Dobbs Ferry is covering Irvington. The Captain even says it during the meeting and if anything happened to her the Ambulance would never get out. It concerns me that the Captain is spilling her guts to the Village which has nothing to do with the Ambulance Corps. except for the contract to provide service to Irvington and the retirement plan. It's time for a paid service in Irvington. Why wait until someone dies because they ca't get a rig out and what does the Dept of Emergency Services say that IVAC is not following the Mutual Aide Agreement correctly. In the video of the work session, Captain Lewit metions that she has been in contact with Dobbs for coverage. Has she informed 60 Control of this? This problem within IVAC has been growing for sometime now. I think it's time for Greenburgh or the County to investigate this serios problem. And the kick in the butt is that they still have CME training and EMT classes and no old or new members for IVAC are in it. I know all Volunteer organizations have some problems recruting or getting rigs out in a fast time. But this happened to IVAC very fast and very bad. Lately it's been the talk of the villages.The only idea that might help is that the Rivertowns is to merge in some way or go all paid. It's time to clean house in IVAC and help it before it falls. THEY NEED VOLUNTEERS NOW.