Law Enforcement: Your Interactions
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Drax
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Hi all,
What are your interactions with law enforcement like? Do they regularly respond to calls alongside you or no? What is their attitude towards you? How would you say they treat you?
Lastly, any memorable interactions would be great to post here
I don't doubt that police can be very helpful. However, my experiences do not reflect that. Officers know following a serious MVA that these individuals should be seen by fire/hospital, all too often they're skipping that step.
That, and once while on a ride along, we were called to an Suicidal Altered LOC (drug use). The individual was trying get hit by a car. We were told to stage, then cleared to go in. We arrive and there are four officers standing in square formation talking to each other, the patient sitting on a bench. C/C (presumably because he refused to speak to us) sucidial intentions and knee pain. Towards the end of the examination, the firefighter in charge instructed one of the other guys to palp his knee for any deformities. Sure enough, the firefighter feels something sharp and removes a 10 inch rusty kitchen knife from the patient's pocket. Mind you, this individual was not cuffed or anything. In his state, I am shocked he didn't try something (must have been the 8 regular to large men standing around him). That finding prompted a pat down...<_< a little late IMO.
Drax
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That said, the scene is never safe, even with four police officers 2 feet away.
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That's ridiculous... they definitely should have patted him down. What was their reaction when you found it? Shocked? Big eyes? Or a "thanks for finding that!"?
DesertMedic66
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They don't respond unless it's a pedi call, suicide attempt, unsafe scene, traffic collisions, and a couple of other types of calls.
I have never had an issue with PD/LEO. They treat us and the fire department really well. If we need them, they will show up in force.
The only issue I have ever had with them is the good old "you can either go to jail or to the hospital". We do have one police department who will write anyone up on a 5150 hold (72 hold psychiatric hold).
I've had a couple of odd interactions. The department that writes everyone on a 5150 hold was called out for a robbery/burglary. When they got on scene they arrested a guy who was in the middle of packing things into his backpack. Once in handcuffs he told the officers we wanted to hurt himself. So we got called to transport him from the police station to the hospital (which a police car could have easily done).
I have never had an issue with PD/LEO. They treat us and the fire department really well. If we need them, they will show up in force.
The only issue I have ever had with them is the good old "you can either go to jail or to the hospital". We do have one police department who will write anyone up on a 5150 hold (72 hold psychiatric hold).
I've had a couple of odd interactions. The department that writes everyone on a 5150 hold was called out for a robbery/burglary. When they got on scene they arrested a guy who was in the middle of packing things into his backpack. Once in handcuffs he told the officers we wanted to hurt himself. So we got called to transport him from the police station to the hospital (which a police car could have easily done).
JPINFV
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Apparently the one thing that won't get a 5150 written is threatening to kill people because you can't get laid.
DesertMedic66
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But no one knew about it. It's not like he posted youtube videos about it or anything like that..
JPINFV
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...if only his parents would have done something... like call the police. [Seriously, I feel bad for the parents. They did what they should have done, and still have to live with the outcome].
paracordmedic
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My LEO experiences all are over the place. Some come to the scene to help, some follow us to catch people not yielding, some tend to assert the "authoritae," occasionally one will threaten to ticket us for reckless driving until we, their supervisor, or another LEO suggests they get a reality check. And of course there are those that make the news for wrongfully arresting EMS and Fire personnel.
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I have had mostly good interactions with police. When there is a dispute it is handled professionally. If we can't resolve it they usually err on the side of caution and have us transport or get sups involved. The few times I did have issues were with police cadets on internship or noobs trying to show their dominance . My dad is Leo and I used to work as a guard.
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We're the Police and Sheriff's Departments' babies. They treat us like their children. You lay a finger on an EMS provider in my county expect to receive a solid beating, and then be charged with a felony.
They do exactly what I ask when I ask it and are usually willing to help, obviously there are bad apples everywhere. They only come on calls that involve pediatrics, violent crime (or just crime obviously), suicidality/homicidality, things like that.
Maybe they're helpful to me because I coded a cops kid and the MD had to kick me out of the trauma bay to get me to stop doing compressions when they pronounced him while basically the entire on duty LE community watched. Who knows.
As far as the knife in the guy's pocket, you can't detain and search every person you come into contact with. People generally don't get searched unless they're being outwardly violent towards PD or us until we're getting ready to put them in the unit, then I will ask if they mind letting the LEO pat them down, "for everyone's safety" if the LEO hasn't initiated it already. Only had one guy refuse, he ended up in the back of a squad car for his ride to the ER rather than my ambulance.
They do exactly what I ask when I ask it and are usually willing to help, obviously there are bad apples everywhere. They only come on calls that involve pediatrics, violent crime (or just crime obviously), suicidality/homicidality, things like that.
Maybe they're helpful to me because I coded a cops kid and the MD had to kick me out of the trauma bay to get me to stop doing compressions when they pronounced him while basically the entire on duty LE community watched. Who knows.
As far as the knife in the guy's pocket, you can't detain and search every person you come into contact with. People generally don't get searched unless they're being outwardly violent towards PD or us until we're getting ready to put them in the unit, then I will ask if they mind letting the LEO pat them down, "for everyone's safety" if the LEO hasn't initiated it already. Only had one guy refuse, he ended up in the back of a squad car for his ride to the ER rather than my ambulance.
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I am apparently very fortunate to have the relationship with pd that I do. Our police officers rock. I can count on one hand the number of bad experiences I've had in the last five years (I can only think of one, actually). We have an exceptionally good relationship with each other. I couldn't care less if they write EDs (psych holds) for everybody, because they will typically transport them, too. If I have a patient that I feel needs an ED, they'll write one up off of my assessment, no questions asked. They aren't afraid to jump in and help whenever we need it. I hear all of these stories about how incompetent or lazy PD is in other areas, and its almost hard to comprehend.
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Yeah, this.
I work in a smaller system, so we are really close with our officers. They commonly come to the station and drink coffee and bull:censored::censored::censored::censored: with us and we rib each other.
They are automatically dispatched to all suicide attempts, assaults, occasionally psych stuff if they sound violent, and codes, because they are all EMR trained and usually can get to the pt faster due to them being on patrol.
Funniest thing I have seen was a pt took a swing at my partner, I was right behind the pt so I tackled him to the ground. He was still fighting me hard but I am a bigger guy who wrestled for 8 years and an avid rugby player, so it was not bad for me. Officer runs over and gives the pt a swift, hard kick in the side then yells "If you do not stop right now they will put the paddles on you!". The guy immediately stopped and was very nice to us the rest of the time, saying how we should be doctors we are so good at our job. I was still really new to the department and was kind of dumbfounded. Gotta love redneck land.
They are automatically dispatched to all suicide attempts, assaults, occasionally psych stuff if they sound violent, and codes, because they are all EMR trained and usually can get to the pt faster due to them being on patrol.
Funniest thing I have seen was a pt took a swing at my partner, I was right behind the pt so I tackled him to the ground. He was still fighting me hard but I am a bigger guy who wrestled for 8 years and an avid rugby player, so it was not bad for me. Officer runs over and gives the pt a swift, hard kick in the side then yells "If you do not stop right now they will put the paddles on you!". The guy immediately stopped and was very nice to us the rest of the time, saying how we should be doctors we are so good at our job. I was still really new to the department and was kind of dumbfounded. Gotta love redneck land.