Remember585

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Posts posted by Remember585

  4. Posted

    Why is this in the Law Enforcement section?

    First of all, I totally agree in required training for Officers. We recently implemented requirements for our officers, which followed the recommendations of OFPC (DHSES, whatever they are now) and/or NYSAFC (I forget who). We added some other stuff. In order to be flexible to the masses, we had to let former officers be allowed to hold positions again for another two years to give guys time to meet the new requirements, provided the past officer isn't moving up, in which case they must meet the new requirements.

    Second, and I swear by this - it doesn't matter what classes or training someone has. If the guy/gal hasn't been around long enough to earn their peers' respect on and off the fireground - they don't belong in the ranks. Experience, training, attendance above that of the minimum, common sense and a mindset of doing the greater good for their company/department are the attributes of a good officer.

    Third, you can have someone who either does or does not have a lot of training run your department into the ground. We have suffered quite a few poor Chiefs and poor Company Officers over the years, and I am sure we'll make those mistakes again. (Hopefully I am wrong) You can have a Chief who does nothing at all for two years, followed by one that does a ton and changes things for the good for two, then have another flapjack come in and set you all back in time again for two years. Realistically, term limits should be looked at and if the majority is content with their leadership - why change it because it is someone else's turn? If a guy is in say, 5 years, and the majority has had their fill of him, VOTE HIM OUT. It isn't rocket science to me, but I am part of the minority.

    Westchester-area Career Officers generally get FDNY's FLIP school, right? Man I would give my left nut for that kind of program. The officer courses offered to the rest of us don't tell you how to handle your calls - they just tell you how to avoid getting sued and show you ways to earn your members' respect (which is fine, but where the f*** is the REAL TRAINNG?!?!)

    I think there are plenty of people in this county - paid and volunteer - that could put together an amazing officer program for both sides of the fence which would cover your soup to nuts. Then, and only then, could any of us really feel "trained & prepared."

    /rant

    Fireman488, Using_All_Hands, billy98988 and 8 others like this

  5. Posted

    I'm sure the MENSA contingent on Capitol Hill will add a clause to remove volunteers from the ACA. Not to get political or anything, but ramming the ACA down everyones' throats before working out every angle is typical government stupidity. In due time, people will either look back at this as a great idea, or future governments will do away with it.

    Fear not, for our elected leaders can never steer us wrong...

    AFS1970, FFPCogs and xchief2x like this

  8. Posted

    On the fire end of things who has mobile fieldcom/command post units?

    Westchester County DES & Yonkers FD. Some FDs have a vehicle with radios and a table in it, and consider that a FC or CP unit.

    I know Yonkers has their own unit, who mans it civilian dispatchers or firefighters and is it available to respond anywhere in Westchester if needed?

    60 control do they have a larger unit and a smaller unit? Who mans these units the dispatchers? Any other departments have one...New Roc, White Plains? One larger unit, Field Comm 1. Staffed by 60 Control personnel.

    Do the people manning the units have Class A fire gear if they are not firefighters? Nope.

    Who acts as Supervisor/boss on the units? A Lieutenant or the Senior Operator.

    In the event of a really large scale incident is there any plan to use all the units? Like one for operations, one for logistics, one for planning to work with the NIIMS system? Pause...NOT!

    Does the Westchester office of emergency management have their own? Are they included in anyone's large scale plan. Our FC 1 is there for OEM and anyone else who needs it.

    I know this is a lot of questions but Nassau had a large brush fire last week and we had 3 fieldcom units working together on day 2 of the incident. Once you got over the ego trip of "this should be our fire" the 3 units worked very well together. We have worked with others before, and it's not really an issue. CALL US NEXT TIME, PLEASE! LOL

    Thanks Guys.

    EmsFirePolice and sfrd18 like this

  15. Posted

    Non-Emergency, Rescue & Engine. This gives you two meters and adequate manpower to fulfill the Two In, Two Out. We used to send Rescue only until we had more than one incident where a CO Detector was actually a smoke detector.

    CO w/ Symptoms get's Two Engines, Truck, Rescue & EMS. This provides units to locate a source, vent the premises and assist EMS with removing / assisting patients.

    CM36, markmets415 and firemoose827 like this

  24. Posted

    The real crime in Westchester is the piss-poor 911 system, with it's DOZENS of PSAPs with people handling those 911 calls with seriously different levels of training to do so. I do not believe that having the "locals" answer 911 calls has much advantage, since they routinely get calls from a caller not in their jurisdiction, then turf the call to another PD/FD or even 60 Control, simply because they have no idea who the call really should be routed to.

    Consolidating cops... sensitive subject. If we do, there really is advantages, and there will be some disadvantages. I can name no less than one dozen police departments in Westchester that do not need to exist, and could easily become part of a county or regional system. They either offer little in the way of special services, have antiquated supervisory staff or - here is something often overlooked - lack the support of their municipality to provide better services. If you took these smaller or under-funded/under-supported departments and put them under a larger umbrella, they could become something much better. It isn't usually the fault of the rank and file officers, it's their (mis)management from their own brass and the municipality they work for.

    Same applies to fire departments, for that matter.

    Bnechis and velcroMedic1987 like this