What to do when you need help?

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CPRinProgress

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My agency has disabled all of the panic buttons on our radios do to an incident where an officer accidentally hit the button and while he was chasing a person down the street, his swearing was broadcast over the radio. It was actually pretty funny. bu i was wondering what some people do if you need PD assistance and dont want to say it in front of a potential attacker. Do you have a code of some sort?
 
That's a pretty stupid reason to disable the emergency button...

If we are in need of PD ASAP, but don't want to make it known to the person, we'll just repeatedly press the button. Dispatch knows that means "Bring the noise".
 
STXmedic said:
That's a pretty stupid reason to disable the emergency button...

If we are in need of PD ASAP, but don't want to make it known to the person, we'll just repeatedly press the button. Dispatch knows that means "Bring the noise".
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I agree but it is also a little unnecessary for us as EMS because we do get PD with us on most of our calls.
 
I know it sounds funny, but that really was the "unofficial send me LE most rikki tick" code phrase. We didn't have orange buttons at that service.

But the noise was broughten several times. :)
 
CPRinProgress said:
I agree but it is also a little unnecessary for us as EMS because we do get PD with us on most of our calls.
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Must be nice. There are only a handful of calls that we get PD dispatched on.
 
STXmedic said:
Must be nice. There are only a handful of calls that we get PD dispatched on.
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Yea. I always thought it was funny that where I am in a wealth suburban neighborhood always get PD on scene yet rural and urban areas don't get PD unless there is an actual need. I am afraid to go into some of the houses around here without PD. I can't imagine in a city with a much higher crime rate.
 
In a wealthy area the police are twiddling their thumbs. Our PD is already stretched thin without responding to the various medical runs they're dispatched to. I will say that they are extremely quick when called. I've needed them once, and had them respond emergently once when PD dispatch misunderstood what we were asking for. On both occasions, there were 3+ cars screeching to a halt in front of us in less than a minute.
 
STXmedic said:
In a wealthy area the police are twiddling their thumbs. Our PD is already stretched thin without responding to the various medical runs they're dispatched to. I will say that they are extremely quick when called. I've needed them once, and had them respond emergently once when PD dispatch misunderstood what we were asking for. On both occasions, there were 3+ cars screeching to a halt in front of us in less than a minute.
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That's good that they are quick about their response. Yea we have 5 officers on at a time. Usually we get one LEO. In a town we respond mutual aid into, the record was 4 officers for an elderly lady who had a near syncopal. We rolled up and I thought there was a stabbing or something. :rofl:
 
CPRinProgress said:
I agree but it is also a little unnecessary for us as EMS because we do get PD with us on most of our calls.
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It's not just when on scene that you would need PD-- i've called before while transporting to the hospital (both when driving and teching), for various reasons. In fact, a crew at one of my previous services pushed their red button a few years ago when they were "held up" for narcs while at Dunkies and the "perpetrator" was upset the crew wasn't producing (a BLS crew).
 
STXmedic said:
In a wealthy area the police are twiddling their thumbs.
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As a cop myself I can promise you they do not twiddle their thumbs. No matter where cops work they risk their lives every single day to help others. There's a reason we have to wear body armor and carry firearms every shift, it's because people try to murder us enough that it because neccessary.

Also so you konw the chance of a cop being murdered while on duty is much higher in lower crime areas than high crime areas. Check the statistics and you'll see it's true so please before you discount the risks we take understand what we go through.
 
We can either dial 911 or call dispatch directly from our personal cells, or use the truck radio. We dont have individual radios, or any special code. After that, it's wait and hope LE comes (they don't always).
 
ProjectCamaro said:
As a cop myself I can promise you they do not twiddle their thumbs. No matter where cops work they risk their lives every single day to help others. There's a reason we have to wear body armor and carry firearms every shift, it's because people try to murder us enough that it because neccessary.

Also so you konw the chance of a cop being murdered while on duty is much higher in lower crime areas than high crime areas. Check the statistics and you'll see it's true so please before you discount the risks we take understand what we go through.
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Unbunch your panties. While I may not be a police officer, I was raised in a family of them, and have worked side-by-side with them for the last 5 years. I don't know where you work or what your area is like, but the officers down here who work in the affluent, suburban areas are by no means as busy as the officers in the impoverished areas. I don't recall saying their jobs are no longer dangerous. But if you think the cops in a nice, quiet town have as much to do as the officers in high-crime areas, you're delusional.
 
STXmedic said:
Unbunch your panties. While I may not be a police officer, I was raised in a family of them, and have worked side-by-side with them for the last 5 years. I don't know where you work or what your area is like, but the officers down here who work in the affluent, suburban areas are by no means as busy as the officers in the impoverished areas. I don't recall saying their jobs are no longer dangerous. But if you think the cops in a nice, quiet town have as much to do as the officers in high-crime areas, you're delusional.[/QUcitiOTE]

I agree. Our LEOs make MV stops every once and a while. They deal with animals and medicals. Of course there is always the occasional domestic, drunk, or person who is just out of control. But compared to officers in a more urban area, suburban officers don't see the same things at least at the same volume as those in cities
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Personally, in instances where I don't have a set panic phrase and I need PD but don't want to say it, I just ask dispatch to advise Paul David of whatever line of BS I think I can get away with. Thus far, I've never had a dispatcher not catch it. *Knocks on wood*
 
If you can figure out how to mention Code 20 on the radio, you'll get whatever can be found county wide. "Dog in the road" also works, though that one's primary purpose is to tell the driver to brake check a combative patient who is has gotten out of seatbelts/restraints. I've never called one, though my partner once said something to the effect of "we're about to have a code 20 on the side of the highway" and the next thing I new the back doors of the ambulance were open and there were three firefighters helping me fight a drunk off and get him tied down.

Dispatch is supposed to call us every twenty minutes and ask if we are Code 4 (ok), but seeing as they struggle to even answer us on the radio when we get dispatched, I'm not thinking that's gonna help me. Our panic buttons are not programmed either.

I used to work at a place where 10-4 was the emergency code...stoopid.
 
"Medic 102, we need PD code 3 to our location". All of our local PD and LEOs will drop whatever they are doing and respond to us in force. We are placed pretty much on the same level as officer needs assistance or officer down.

The last time I had to call for help code 3 the sheriff deputy had smoke on his tires from a sliding stop and came out of his unit with his taser already up and ready to go.

Dispatch will send out what ever help is closest if it's an aggressive patient. Supervisor, fire department, another ambulance, etc.
 
DesertEMT66 said:
"Medic 102, we need PD code 3 to our location". All of our local PD and LEOs will drop whatever they are doing and respond to us in force. We are placed pretty much on the same level as officer needs assistance or officer down.

The last time I had to call for help code 3 the sheriff deputy had smoke on his tires from a sliding stop and came out of his unit with his taser already up and ready to go.


Dispatch will send out what ever help is closest if it's an aggressive patient. Supervisor, fire department, another ambulance, etc.
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I more meant that if some guy with a gun was with us and I didn't want him to know what I was doing. We have no codes but if I said we are 10-20 instead of we need police. The outcome may be different.
 
CPRinProgress said:
I more meant that if some guy with a gun was with us and I didn't want him to know what I was doing. We have no codes but if I said we are 10-20 instead of we need police. The outcome may be different.
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In that case our only option is to wait. We get safety checks every 30 minutes. If we don't respond Code-4 (we are ok) to the checks dispatch will start to send help.

We had a local fire and ambulance crew get caught in the middle of a gun fight not too long ago. Talking to other employees of that service I guess you could hear them asking for help and hear gun shots in the background.
 
We have a emergency button on HTs and our MDT. We also have codes and regular safety checks we need to go Code 4 on. Once either is activated they will switch everyones traffic to another channel and keep the unit in distress on the main alone so no ones walks on them if they key up.
 
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