Quote:
Originally Posted by revclstoner
Not too long ago, I heard a paramedic over the scanner sounding a little upset when he had to wait for an officer. PD Dispatch advises that they didn't have any officers available...
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That was consistent in the two Northeastern cities I worked as a paramedic for in the 80s. Some of the people who stayed in the field and later retired have told me it didn't get much better. Things change as you go further into the suburbs. In the Midwestern exurb where I used to live, there would pretty much be 6 people staging up the road waiting a significant amount of time for a deputy to tear across the county from the more populated areas. As someone who worked in the public sector at the time, not as a hobbyist, I was going to start keeping stats on response time vs. patient contact and break those down by district and response zones, ultimately to plead my case for 1) closer EMS posting (which we ultimately got, but not as a result of anything I did), and 2) a permanently assigned LEO within the zone who could only be pulled for a major incident (which we did not get).
Then we have the tragedy just outside of Rochester, where there was no reason to even have to stage, and the unthinkable happened.
Out here in my new location, the PD supervisor tells dispatch to "close out" medical calls and will not simultaneously respond unless there is a specific request. I suppose that's a byproduct of staffing levels.
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