When they got to the fire station I agree with the police officers tactics a little bit. I wouldnt have told the suspect to get back into his vehicle, where he could potentially have access to a weapon, I would of had him lay on the ground. But he was wearing a shirt with what looked like a badge on the chest. I didnt see anything on the back of it saying he was a volunteer fire fighter.
Except there's that issue about him running the plate. And dispatch confirming that it belonged to a member of the fire department. That they pulled in to. That was getting an emergency call. That had other members there preparing for a response. Yeah, pulling his gun and pointing it at his head was completely logical.
Officers safety is the number one priorty.
Wanna know what's more important? Making sure your officers aren't needlessly endangering the lives of the citizens they're supposed to protect. Like when they cross the center line of a hill with no emergency lights. Like when they're going 101 mph and there's NO documented criminal activity.
Now for the ff. Running code/hot for a non emergency code is against his department policies.
First, it WAS an emergency job. It came into a 911 call center, and was dispatched to the FD. By definition, it's an emergency job. Second, it's NOT against his department policies. The fire chief actually says that they encourage their members to use judgement when deciding how to respond. Oh, and there's that bit about the call actually being a refrigerator fire. That would have been worse had it not been extinguished by the FD.....
I am not sure what oregons law is for volunteers
Glad to see you read the article, and all the posts, and the link I put up. This actually happened in Wisconsin. The village is Oregon.
and having lights but in texas the pov needs to have 360 degree visibility for emergency lights. The lights have to be visible up to 300-500 hundred feet. Plus the firefighter needs to have displayed on his vehicle fireman, firefighter, or a departmental decal(thats from my chief). I did not see any of those on the ff vehicles.
So what? He wasn't in Texas.
Lastly the ff was in a pov.
Nope. As defined by Wisconsin law, he's an emergency vehicle.
I know my chief has stated, along with the DPS captain for my area, that even though our pov's are considered emergency vehicles in Texas if we do not yeild right of way for marked police officers then we are going to be in trouble, because at the end of the day we are still in our POVs.
Again, this guy was in Wisconsin, not Texas. He was an official emergency vehicle, responding to an emergency (a fridge fire that could have been a structure fire if not extinguished) with his emergency lights running. His assumption was reasonable.
The ff, and the entire department, needs to be disciplined if they are violating departmental policy by using lights and sirens for non emergency calls.
That's the thing, though. They're not violating department policy. The chief is actually backing them up. The police department is claiming some policy by Dane County claiming that they're not to respond lights and sirens for these calls (which was mis-classified, by the way). But I doubt if they actually have any authority over individual departments. If I was the department, I'd tell them that we take care of our own liability insurance, and we'll be the ones with our heads on the chopping block if someone's house burns down (because their fridge that's on fire gets out of control because we considered it a non-emergency), so we'll set our own policies, thanks.
The LEO didn't do much in the way of error.
Except drive completely recklessly. Without due regard for the public. Without evidence of a crime.
All I can say if that this could have been severely deescalated had the LEO made a call to dispatch and dispatch being aware of what's happening in their county.
Yes.
You in your pov? If not doesn't apply this discussion.
You are in an official vehicle. The guy in discussion was not. Big difference.
This guy was in pov not in emergency vehicle. Was not registered as emergency vehicle.
Actually, according to Wisconsin law (if you had read my link), he is defined as an emergency vehicle.
Technically even the lights on your ambulance are just a courtesy asking for the right away.
Absolutely untrue. Yes, they give emergency vehicle operators the right to violate vehicle and traffic laws, but they also mean that people that don't pull over are breaking the law. Traffic is required to yield the right of way to an emergency vehicle.
First of all I think that the law suit is simply ridiculous.
Well, the police department is deflecting all the blame to the fire department. They completely backed their officer in a high speed chase (when there was no evidence of a crime), not using his lights at night, cresting a hill across a center line, and driving 101 mph. They then accuse the FF for not driving with due regard. You know, they guy that used his turn signals and stopped at stop signs. Way to cover your own, guys. And they wrote him a ticket. For assuming they were going to the same call. Then did an "internal investigation" and decided there was no merit to the complaints. So the only way to get them to pay attention is to file a claim. (BTW, he hasn't filed a lawsuit yet.) If the village of Oregon would address the issue, this would go away. But they won't. And they're making the FF out to be the bad guy. So I don't blame him one bit.
