Respond Hot? Respond Cold?

[trixwagen]

I've monitored emergency vehicles dispatched to "respond hot" and "respond cold".

How bad does the situation have to be to "respond hot"?

Does a "respond hot" mean they'll go out to the incident with sirens blaring at the fastest safe speed possible?

Does a "respond cold" mean no sirens? What are the differences?

 

[ibagli]

Your definitions seem to be right. As far as I can tell, there's a bit of discretion as to when they go "hot" or not. In my area, LEO's always go hot to reports of injury accidents, robberies in progress, and shootings and such things. The rest seems to be on the discretion of the dispatcher or the sergeant on duty at the time.

For Fire/EMS, at least one unit goes hot to just about everything except for CO checks without illness, assists from the floor, and investigations. In one city, only one unit goes hot to most EMS runs (if two are dispatched). That's to reduce the number of emergency vehicles possibly going into the same intersection from different directions (which happened a few years ago with nasty results).

 

[Jay911]

It all depends on the agency and their response plans.

In general, "hot" means lights & sirens, and "cold" means no lights, no sirens, following normal traffic rules & flow.

In a structured dispatch system, cold responses generally indicate the absence of life hazard or high property hazard at an incident. For example, my agency goes cold to non-injury MVCs with fluid pickup only, carbon monoxide alarms without illness (as ibagli said), confirmed false alarms at automatic fire alarm incidents, etc. Hot responses are reserved for things like cardiac arrest, traumatic injuries of more than trivial (toe, finger, wrist) nature, confirmed or possible fires, dangerous goods spills/leaks, etc. Even on automatic fire alarms not yet confirmed false, only one truck goes 'hot' while the others go 'cold'. The reason for this is that so many alarms are false that we don't want to risk an accident while responding 'hot', so we minimize the 'hot' response - but still attend in a timely fashion, in case the alarms prove to be real. Of course, if the first truck gets there and says "Holy #(%@ it's rippin'!", we can certainly upgrade the response of the other trucks.

 

[trixwagen]

How about that. I was actually right about something. Thanks for the answers.

 

[basenjib123]

My brother is a cop...

He has actually told me about officers that are known to blast their sirens and lights to ensure that the perps are not there when they arrive!! ...and he was not joking! They had a female cop that was notorious for doing this crap! Finally she admitted that she was afraid of the criminals and eventually she quit (should have been fired but affirmative action would not hear of it) ...true story...scary huh?

 

[mjthomas59]

He has actually told me about officers that are known to blast their sirens and lights to ensure that the perps are not there when they arrive!! ...and he was not joking! They had a female cop that was notorious for doing this crap! Finally she admitted that she was afraid of the criminals and eventually she quit (should have been fired but affirmative action would not hear of it) ...true story...scary huh?

Although it goes against everything we are taught in the police academy, it doesn't surprise me one bit that LEO's are afraid of the criminals. And at times it is for a good reason. Hardened criminals can easily be better armed than the police, and if they have time to set a trap for an officer, it can get very ugly very fast. That being said, there are times where responding to an incident with lights and sirens(as an LEO) can be very helpful. Most fights and assaults can be stopped just by the sound of an approaching siren. Of course, i'm not going to come with lights and siren to a burglary in progress call.... the best weapon you have is the element of surprise in these instances, and the less time the perp has to find a place to hide and plot against you is always in your best interest. This can also be said of domestic violence, the last thing you want is for the guy beating the crap out of his wife/girlfriend(as it happens in 95%+or- of reported cases) to take her hostage inside the house. Times like that you shut off your lights and sirens several blocks from the home, park up the street, hope to god your backup is closeby, and then walk to the house expecting the fight of your life.

 

[avgas]

In my area our units respond "Green" or "Red" and just like you guys have stated above. Red is lights and siren, Grenn is not.

Our ems uses the same type of code system for patient status.
Black, Red, Yellow, and green. Black being Deceased.

 

[CapStar362]

in LifeLine terms Hot means your landing and loading with the rotors still turning, cold means you are allowed to shutdown the bird and wait for the paitient to arrive

 

[LEH]

That being said, there are times where responding to an incident with lights and sirens(as an LEO) can be very helpful. Most fights and assaults can be stopped just by the sound of an approaching siren.

I had a friend who was a deput sheriff in Pima County AZ many years ago. In the unicorporated areas, back up could be 15-20 minutes away. He told me several times he'd been dispatched to bar fights with his backup miles away. He said he'd arrive on scene, turn on his siren and drive through the parking lot. When he went into the bar, everything would (most of the time) be nice and quiet.

 

[mmtstc]

And in EMS terms, the response priority is determined through Multiple ways. in a system that is EMD (Emergency medical Dispatcher) trained, they use the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) Flip cards or it's electronic companion, Pro-QA. MPDS and ProQA are a system that allows for appropriate questions to be asked to help determine the probable nature of the incident. It also allows the dispatcher or call taker to give instructions over the phone to provide pre arrival care for certain situations (cardiac arrest, Childbirth, Etc...) MPDS also triages what units to send (ALS / BLS ) and at what speed to recommend they respond at as dictated by the systems medical director.

Love it or Hate it, MPDS and ProQA are risk reducing systems that are proven...

 

[Raven95150]

Different agencies use different terms. I have never heard "hot" or "cold" myself though. Around here most agencies use "code 2" and "code 3" or "routine" and "on the reds."

 

[rescue128]

our chief says, 10-33 or non 10-33. next county over it is respond 10-39 lights, or 10-40 means nothing

 

[ibagli]

In my area it can be 27 (with light/siren) or 13 (without), 10-33 or 10-32 (not used much anymore), or priority 1 or priority 2.

 

[rescue128]

10-32 here is man with gun.

 

[ibagli]

It was just used by one fire department, and they've abandoned their ten codes. Even when I started listening in 1999 they only used those two and 10-22 (Police Department).

 

[RodStrong]

It varies by dept. and their policies. Some depts. have strict rules as to what constitutes "a code run", or running, hot, Code 3, whatever. And often younger Officers are more likely to run hot because they can (it's exciting for a young whippersnapper you know), but the older and wiser ones tend to be more conservative, and run hot only when it's necessary.

 

[hoser147]

Rod is right it varies from department to department, some need clearance from a higher up or a dispatcher assigns them. We have a city close to here that has a code 1,2,3. One is get there when you can. 2. Lights and ASAP (which is against state law) and 3 ASAP lights and Siren. A Vol. squad 25 to 30 miles to the hosp almost always runs hot. really if its not a long run, in light traffic your going to get there just about the same time anyway...........Hoser

 

[ibagli]

What's PDQ?

 

[hoser147]

Kinda like ASAP, I edited it........Hoser:wink:

 

[n5usr]

My suburb town's FD just uses "emergency" and "non-emergency" to denote the type of run.

The PD is kind of interesting - they almost never specify, the officers seem to make their own decision on a per-call basis (or perhaps a predefined set of rules). However, if an officer wants another to hurry up and get there or the dispatcher wants to change the severity of what would otherwise be a non-emergency call they'll tell the responding officer to "step it up". Likewise, when a responding officer is unsure and asking how serious a call is, "Do you want/need me to step it up?"

Of course, "stepping it up" does not always mean lights/siren - they will frequently run silent, with just a few lights if necessary to alert oncoming traffic.