Relationship with local emergency services?

[FireEMSPolice]

What is your relationship with the local emergency services (Police/Law Enforcement, Fire, Emergency Medical Services)?

Police - Its wonderful. They always back us up and help with most information we need.

Fire/EMS - Again its wonderful. In fact, one of the city fire stations is a couple of blocks away so we gave them 3 portable radios (1 for the squad/ambulance, 1 for the engine, 1 for the ladder). The reason for that is because some tenants who call 9-1-1 dont always call also like we require. This way the FD or EMS can tell us they have a run on the property so we can escort them to the closest location. They even provide us with free CPR/First Aid/AED training at the city fire academy.

[exguard]

We work very well with outside emergency services {City Fire Department which also does EMS, Police, Highway Patrol, USCG, etc...}

One of the City's Fire Boat Stations can only be accesed from land through our gates....So we've gotten to know them pretty well {On occassion we'll gather for dinner or just to shoot the sh**} ~ The first due Engine and Ladder Company for our Complex {E60, L19} Is just 2 1/2 blocks from our entrance - The people there are great to be with. ~ We double as First Responders and Firefighters at our refinery so the working relationship and respect are mutial. - We do EMS and call for a medic unit when a transport is required - They like it because we have all the leg work done for them before they arrive {Vital Signs, EKG Monitoring, Assessments...they like it}

The Police and Highway Patrol are excellant also ~ When we call they come - quick - We work on investigations with them at the complex and follow through on arrests {If we make any....I think we made one last year for theft} But they assist us at accidents, parking details, road closures, and so forth. As for the USCG - Well they're a little stuffy but good people all the same....No sense of humor but I guess in this day and age you gotta' be on top of your game

[Sarin]

EMT/Emergency Services (fire station, ambulance...): I would like to believe our relationship with them is very wonderful. Afterall, we are the hospital, so I'd imagine it would -need- to be. And if we ever have anyone injured, we simply dial the extension needed to get the emergency staff. So we have that one pretty easy, hm?

As for police: We have a wonderful, and pretty personal relationship with them. We're a rural facility in a pretty small town, so almost all of us in the staff know almost all of the officers, and we have a pretty high rate of S/O's becomming PD after they reach their degree, which makes the bond tighter. We also have a pretty strong respect from them. We normally only ever call in extreme emergencies (someone down, someone leaving who is being held on court orders, back up needed, or deadly threat). They provide us with plate checks if we ever find a car parked somewhere they shouldn't be, and are all around very helpful.

I think it needs to be that way with a good security force, even in the larger cities where I started in this field. If we are to be effective, we need the mutual respect and the ability to work easily together with law enforcement and other services.

[Charger]

If we are to be effective, we need the mutual respect and the ability to work easily together with law enforcement and other services.

That's a sig-worthy quote, right there.

[Arff312]

We have a great relationship with all the police agencies in our area. We get quick response times and they trust us/ They know that if we are calling them it is legit. They even call us to handle calls on our properties so they can keep officers on the road when possible. there have even been DV's and fights where they call us and send one or two units instead of 5 or six. We have the ability to have 10 officers on any site in 10 minutes. Most our officers are armed and almost all are taser certified.

The fire department relationship is ok. I havent seen any problems . Being that i am a full time frefighter i get along well with them when they show up.

[Sarin]

That's a sig-worthy quote, right there.

Hehe, thank you!

And Arf:
I'd imagine that being a firefighter would really help in that relationship. And all of you are armed and have tasers? Do you mind if I ask what type of facility you work at?

[HotelSecurity]

When I started in the hotel security business back in 1977 our realitions with the police were not that good. We were looked down on as watchmen. over the years we hired a lot of police technology students who would work at hotel security on weekends while in college. This helped them learn how to deal with the public & helped us by them knowing what we were about when they became police officers. When they would come to the hotel to take reports they would usually take their meal breaks at the same time & we became very close with a lot of the officers.

Then Montreal changed it's policing. For the past few years they have Community Policing. Under this system, the idea is to keep the police free to respond to serious incidents. So, if something happens at the hotel & the suspect is not still around, they will not respond. The victim is supposed to go himself to the police station to fill out a report. At about the same time the owner of my hotel got rid of all the hotel's food & beverage staff. The banquet, restaurant & bars were given out as concessions. This means that the hotel no longer owns them, therefore we are no longer allowed to invite the police officers for FREE meals. Since these 2 things have happened we hardly ever see the police anymore.

A third thing that happened (that I've moaned about often on this board) is that the police have decided that the Canadian Constitution does not allow a person to be evicted from their home for simply making noise in the middle of the night. They consider an hotel room as a temporary home. Therefore it is of no use to call them in this situation anymore. we used to call them a lot for this.

As for firefighters. The hotel has a 2 staged fire alarm system with a minimum 3 person Fire Brigade. The evacuation alarm does not have to be rung unless the brigade detects something that requires an evacuation. Over the years we have not called the fire department for routine alarms unless something is found. (The firefighters on this site are now having a stroke!!)

We only deal with the ambulance service a few times a year & the ambulances in Montreal don't respond from a station, they are parked all around the city. I don't think I've dealt with the same crew twice. Having worked as a First Responder I know what my limits are & respect them. This usually helps in dealing with them.

Another thing personally is that I am English.. I speak French with a bad accent. I estimate 95% of the firefighters & Paramedics & 80% of the police officers are Francophones, some of them separatists that believe English people are preventing Quebec from leaving Canada & setting up it's own country. This sometimes causes friction between me & the emergency workers.

I teach all my guys that it is very important that we consider ourselves First Responders for all emergency services. If you want to really cause friction with one of the services, try to continue to "run the show" when they arrive. The best thing to do is back off & assit them if they ask for assistance. This helos to keep the relationship good.

[Arff312]

Hehe, thank you!

And Arf:
I'd imagine that being a firefighter would really help in that relationship. And all of you are armed and have tasers? Do you mind if I ask what type of facility you work at?

We are about 50-75 % armed at this time. Almost everyone is taser certified. They issue them out at the beginning of the shift if we dont have our own. The company provides the taser training free and as part of our in house training program. I dont worka facility i work patrol in CA.

[TheEskimo]

With my last company we were very close with everyone, to the point where the local LEO's would stop in for coffee with us or we head to the local fire station to complete our reports and shoot the breeze at the end of the day. And they always knew if we called it was for a very good reason.

I must say I was worried about this when I took this new position, but it has turned out to be a good relationship so far. Mind you I have only been in this site for about four months. I had to have the FD come out for a small fire last week and they were great, had a cup of coffee with them while we did our reports.

The next night I had to call the local PD for some vandalism suspects who rant when I found them, and PD was here and got two of them even before I could get the whole description out to their dispatcher(I was only able to give the vehicle desc. and they found them while I was giving the rest). Was asked to ID them within five minutes of their running from me.

While we were in the middle of that I had one of them go with me to locate the third suspect, and we found him rather quickly. Very proffesional PD and very friendly. I was most impressed.

[Alaska Security]

Military: Our company works the gates, and we have to go through one of their gates to do some of our patrols... so that's easy.

Troopers: They come BS and drink coffee at our guard posts sometimes, very good working relationship...

Fire/EMS: never interacted with them, volunteer unit.

[HotelSecurity]

I forgot to mention in my original post that we do still have a good relationship with the Detectives. 2 of them attend our monthly Hotel Security Director's meetings where we exchange a lot of information.

[CorpSec]

Police: Outstanding relationship with the cops. They come into our office and chat and we do the same. We don't pay for reports and they will run whatever we need them to run. I let them park their P.O.V.'s in our heated dock when they are working off duty in the area (a nice feature in Minnesota). Our Company also gives a lot of money to the locals and I know most of the guys and gals on a first name basis.

EMS: We are all First Responders and have pretty good staffing. When they get here, we have someone to meet them at the door and escort them right to the patient. We have a information sheet that was created by one of the paramedics and we have that all filled out for them. As they are walking up to the patient we are giving them all the info they need from the patient's age, vitals, and last oral intake. We will sometimes have 4-5 First Responders on scene. The EMS folks have commented that they have never had it so good.

Fire: We thankfully don't require their presence that often. But, when they have come out they have been very professional and nice to deal with.

[NRM_Oz]

Running a high risk data centre that still ran a HALO system (poisonous gas), we had the local firies come in for training and familiarisation for new staff. It was just a walkthrough but it was important for them to get to know the staff, facilities teams and also security managers (I was a fill in when my staff were sick) to know WHOM to contact if they needed someone in a SHTF scenario.