Ohio Firefighters to Battle Blazes, Fight Crime

[HFD201 0]

Ohio Firefighters to Battle Blazes, Fight Crime

Story by newsnet5.com

Firefighters will begin fighting crime soon in East Cleveland.

East Cleveland's Mayor Eric Brewer said police manpower is strained, so he is trying new things to make the city safer and stay within the budget.

The city does not have enough police officers, so Brewer thinks that the fire department can help.

"They will be firefighters, paramedics, and also serving in a police officers' capacity," Brewer said. "But they'll be working on some of the minor issues -- writing tickets and things of that nature."

So far, three firefighters are ready to start and three others are getting trained.

They'll act as extra officers during their 24-hour shifts and volunteer 16 hours a month to police work.

What is everyones thoughts/comments on this?

Edited April 28, 2007 by HFD201

[ex-commish 490]

What is everyones thoughts/comments on this?

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I think it is a bad idea. I am curious as to what both the police and fire unions think of this. I know in some communities there are public saftey officers who dual as firefighters and police officers.

[Guest partyrock]

The fire union should be screaming against this. If you need more cops, then hire them. We need to support our fellow union workers, not help to displace them.

[JM15 386]

That is outrageous, I hope that their union fights that. Exactly what Partyrock said they should just hire more cops what would happen if a FF gets injured or killed while doing police work? This is just an all around bad idea.

[Guest]

I have a question. What happens ohhhh say you are in the middle of that parking ticket, and beep beep beep beep, goes off. You are two blocks away from the firehouse, do you have the rig pick you up? Do you run back to the station?

Yes I asked this....lol......

This is a joke, firefighters are firefighters, policeman are policeman.

[COMMANDCHIEF 4]

What do they mean about "volunteer" 16 hours? Does this mean they will work their regular tour, then do an additional 16 hrs?

[Scottyk107 9]

The public doesnt look at firefighters and poilce the same....fire figheters only come to help. People usually think police are associated with bad things like tickets. dont mix the two then all public safety workers will be hated.....

[BIGRED1 71]

OK the town has a population of 27,217, is 3.1 sq miles. it is a suburb of Cleveland and they cant get extra cops? Its is kinda like saying that Morris Park (pop of about 30,000) in the Bronx doesn't have enough money for the cops so the FDNY has to help out. It is a dumb idea and you are either one or the other, not both. you want to have them write tickets for fire related things like parking in front of a hydrant or in a fire lane, well that makes sense. but Joe Firemen should not be chasing down perps when he is off.

also side thought, are these guys gonna get two pensions when they retire? they are doing two jobs that have a pension system. just a random thought

(all my population numbers are from Wikipedia, and is more for comparison to size and not the actual communities themselves)

[20y2 43]

Most of the day to day functions of a police department do not need the services of a police officer. If you can use another underutilized public safety worker to perform a civilian task, then I am all for it. Heck, it will keep the tax rate down.

[Guest]

This sounds really dumb, why not hire more cops or even go another route like hire auxilary police to help out with tickets having firefighters do is stupid I can see more arguments between the two organizations about how is doing their job and who is not and this will only get ugly.

[helicopper 1,050]

Yet another example of poorly informed politicians making decisions about public safety. Can it be done - sure. Should it be done - absolutely not!

It is hard enough to maintain proficiency as either a firefighter, police officer, or paramedic. There is great training out there but there are only so many hours in the day and if this town's budget is tight, I'm comfortable guessing that they won't be paying overtime to send guys for training. So, I'm guessing that the political bean counters are saying - you just put water on a fire and write tickets all day so why can't you do both?

We can only hope that more informed and reasonable minds prevail and show them just how misguided this is.

On the safety side - where will they wear their newly issued firearm? On the inside of their turnout or on the outside? Wow, that will be make it pretty warm when they get out of a fire!!! If they don't carry a firearm on duty but are also police officers they've got a recipe for disaster goin'. The s(um8ags will see turnout gear or a fire truck and associate it with the "5-0" coming.

Going back to the equipment they will carry, does anyone know at what temperature an OC canister will explode?

[Guest partyrock]

Most of the day to day functions of a police department do not need the services of a police officer.

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Absolutely right. Hire a secretary. As a civil service union fire should not be looking to take jobs from PD and vice versa. Thats one of the things that kills me in NYC. PD and Fire spend almost as much time fighting each other as they do fighting the city.

[Monty 35]

... trying new things to make the city safer and stay within the budget ....

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It's interesting reading the responses here and thinking of some of the other threads. We talk about the high costs of taxes and reducing duplication, but there's also a lot of nimby-ness as well. I can imagine it would be a very similar reaction if the Mayor was to 'transfer' headcount from the Fire Dept to the PD. Or if he was to cut overtime, or reduce the number of firefighters.

Now, this does sound a bit fishy, (it seems to imply volunteering above their 24 hour shifts - now volunteering could mean that they are getting paid. Volunteering and not getting paid are not always the same thing) but I don't believe any of us really know the local situation. It sounds like the Mayor is trying to better utilize his local resources - now, maybe this might not be the best way .... But who here is going to giveup any reduction in headcount? I doubt there are many. How many want to pay additional taxes for more Police Officers or civilian employees?

Edited April 30, 2007 by Monty

[nycemt728 49]

I think there are alot of knee-jerk reactions regarding the idea. While there are obvious ups and downs, I belive that this might work well on paper but be harder to implement. With that said however, I don't think that the priciple is automaticallty a bad idea. If the firefighers are compensated for the extra duty and are given the proper training and supervision, I think this might be viable solution to this town's problems. What I think we need to keep in mind is: This might not be applicable to all jurisdictions!! In larger jurisdicitions such as NYC, intergration would certaintly help alleviate the battle of the badges that occur b/c of the duplication of services. I know to some degree, federal agencies mix job titles like this; perhaps they could sevrve as a model (A scary idea I know)

[Guest partyrock]

The "battle of the badges" is something that was fed to us thanks to what was suppose to be more efficient utilization of manpower. The brass in an effort to justify thier numbers and budgets need more tasks for their membership to perform. So they start reaching out and taking. The only place the fight between PD and FD ever occurs is between ESU and Rescue (or the truck wroking an extrication) Each side is doing what they are told and handling the scene. When there isn't enough work for both they both try and do their job and wind up butting heads. If the higher-ups would agree on who gets what and where, then there would be no problems. Other than FF's breaking doors and cops blocking hydrants we all get along.

FF's writting tickets or pushing paper may not sound bad, but what about ESU (or the equivalent) ridding out your Rescue? These guys should support the PD union. If they are against it, then refuse to volunteer for these assignments.

Edited May 1, 2007 by partyrock