ADDED TO YOUR JOB DISCRIPTION:

[spenac]

It's to easy to mistake everyday items as potential weapons. Come to my house I have wire, electronics, fertilizer, swimming pool chemicals, etc, etc, etc that could easily be used to make something if a person were to look hard enough online. These items are used in my garden, my pool, my house etc but if ever invaded by the police they could easily claim it was for bad purposes. Bring in an untrained EMT spy and he sees these normal items, calls authorities and I get locked up for nothing. But because the cops don't want to look bad it will be described as an almost ready to deploy weapon. I'm labeled an enemy combatant. So off I go to the island of no return to be tortured w/o any hope of release.

Bad idea to have us become spys.

[AnthonyM83]

Yeah, it'll never work officially, but unofficially it might work out...but that's now really newsworthy...they can have informants in any number of fields

[Richard B the EMT]

Something like 20 plus years ago, the pre-merger NYC EMS was having a problem. Someone was calling in with low priority calls, of a type that, per protocols then in place, did not require the NYPD also respond. As pieced together afterwards, the bad guys would call in these low priority calls to locations where nobody lived, but also where the crews would not be seen from the streets, as in apartment buildings. After finding nobody home, and no answer or a non working callback phone number, the crew would start to leave, turn around, and find themselves looking down the gun barrels of the bad guys. The bad guys would relieve the crews of their personal monies, their 2 way portable radios, and the keys to the ambulances.

After the NYPD started responding to all calls in that area, they finally found the bastards doing the evil deed, and arrested them. Seems the bad guys were stealing the radios, that they might change the radio frequencies, and use them, of all things, as a 2 way radio system for a SECURITY SERVICE they were trying to start up. Stealing the cash was a dividend. And stealing the keys was so the crews couldn't use the ambulance mobile radios that quickly to summon the NYPD. One of the crews so robbed included a female member of my volunteer ambulance, who also worked for the NYC EMS. No EMS personnel, thank goodness, were injured during the assaults.

Now, imagine the same scenario being used to steal an ambulance, and possibly the uniforms of the crews. It is too easy to change the shop number on the side of an ambulance, so if an ambulance based from my station were stolen,, I wouldn't see a familiar number on the side, therefore negating my observation that an unfamiliar crew was in my local paramedic's vehicle. "I don't recognize that vehicle or crew, perhaps it is from another station, covering in my area while MY paramedics seem to be taking so long on that BS call I heard them being dispatched on a while ago."

Did I mention that the NYPD doesn't respond to every call type the FDNY EMS responds to?

[spenac]

Something like 20 plus years ago, the pre-merger NYC EMS was having a problem. Someone was calling in with low priority calls, of a type that, per protocols then in place, did not require the NYPD also respond. As pieced together afterwards, the bad guys would call in these low priority calls to locations where nobody lived, but also where the crews would not be seen from the streets, as in apartment buildings. After finding nobody home, and no answer or a non working callback phone number, the crew would start to leave, turn around, and find themselves looking down the gun barrels of the bad guys. The bad guys would relieve the crews of their personal monies, their 2 way portable radios, and the keys to the ambulances.

After the NYPD started responding to all calls in that area, they finally found the bastards doing the evil deed, and arrested them. Seems the bad guys were stealing the radios, that they might change the radio frequencies, and use them, of all things, as a 2 way radio system for a SECURITY SERVICE they were trying to start up. Stealing the cash was a dividend. And stealing the keys was so the crews couldn't use the ambulance mobile radios that quickly to summon the NYPD. One of the crews so robbed included a female member of my volunteer ambulance, who also worked for the NYC EMS. No EMS personnel, thank goodness, were injured during the assaults.

Now, imagine the same scenario being used to steal an ambulance, and possibly the uniforms of the crews. It is too easy to change the shop number on the side of an ambulance, so if an ambulance based from my station were stolen,, I wouldn't see a familiar number on the side, therefore negating my observation that an unfamiliar crew was in my local paramedic's vehicle. "I don't recognize that vehicle or crew, perhaps it is from another station, covering in my area while MY paramedics seem to be taking so long on that BS call I heard them being dispatched on a while ago."

Did I mention that the NYPD doesn't respond to every call type the FDNY EMS responds to?

WOW cops respond to some calls. No such thing here. We're all alone, no one here besides us.

[emt322632]

This just goes against everything that EMS was created for.

Emergency MEDICAL Service! There is nothing in that title that even remotely comes to include any form of spying on your patients. I can see this type of reporting for some incidents, such as elder/child abuse. However in those cases, the welfare and life of the patient could very well be in danger.

Just as was mentioned, there are countless things in people's homes that could be mistaken as a weapon. Heck, I'm sure someone somewhere has a bottle of bleach and some ammonia lying around, must be they're trying to create a noxious cloud eh?

I just don't think it would be conducive to our job if people were worried about having the authorities called on them whenever an ambulance responds.

[CBEMT]

This won't ever fly with the EMS community. There are far to many privacy and confidentiality issues that WE as EMS providers must adhere to on a daily basis.

Emergency MEDICAL Service! There is nothing in that title that even remotely comes to include any form of spying on your patients. I can see this type of reporting for some incidents, such as elder/child abuse. However in those cases, the welfare and life of the patient could very well be in danger.

So you find a house full of AK-47s and RPGs, with maps on the walls and military paraphernalia everywhere. You consider this confidential information?

People seriously need to find their HIPAA trainer and get their money back, and use it to buy some common sense. :roll:

[Capman]

You forgot to mention the 50 gallon drum of plutonium and nuclear warheads. :)/

C'mon... That's blowing this way out of proportion!

If you walk in on something like that, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be walking out.

Besides, something like that would be reportable. However, we are talking about poking around to find something that isn't necessarily in sight.

Pretty soon we will all be working for these guys. > > > :glasses5: :glasses4: :glasses5:

[Lone Star]

Pretty soon we will all be working for these guys. > > > :glasses5: :glasses4: :glasses5:

OMG! You mean to tell me that we'll soon be working for Asysin2leads????

[emt322632]

As was mentioned by Lone Star, if you walk into a situation where there are AK-47s around, chances are you weren't called for a medical emergency.

More than likely those people have bigger plans for you.

[Elvira1]

I have to agree with Dwayne. Spying is not my job. My job is to treat and comfort the sick and wounded. I work for my little city's squad for pete's sake...not the FBI! And I think it would take away from patient care. If I notice odd things sure, I'll tell them. But that's where the line is.

I totaly agree with you