911:: Communication Vehicle Responses

July 3, 2000

First : Randall, I haven't forgotten the picture, my camera was out of service,

now the bus is out of service. I'll get the pic to you as soon as I can.

Second : Response protocol question. Last weekend we had our county marine units

respond to a waterway in another state for a drowning, also we sent our county

Dive Team at the request of the incident commander (not from our county).

Response protocols have our " Field Comm 1 " respond to all incidents with the

dive

team. This particular incident was in a neighboring county in another state,

their comm center is significantly larger than ours, and they tend to hold a

" better than you " arrogance in most occasions. The purpose for responding the

Comm Unit is for the tracking of divers and the additional marine units

designated to the dive team. Also, when the dive team responds there are

additional BLS units that are requested, designated for the team members only.

However in this case (being out of state), the dive team did not have the

additional BLS dispatched. Now, being out of state, and on differing

frequencies,

our marine personnel had communication problems with the local (other state)

units, so our Comm Unit had additional benefits/tasks.

Here is what I am getting at, the other state/county comm center had a hissy

fit when I called them to advise them we were enroute. I called them just to

give

them a heads up, and ask where would be the best place to set up. I did not want

to get in the way of the units on scene, especially their unit. Come to find

out,

they did not respond their unit, it was not part of their procedures, and

thought

we shouldn't be there unless they were too. We got the royal cold shoulder from

them the rest of the day.

Does anyone have similar response protocols, and has anyone received similar

treatment from other organizations?

J. Fred Ayars

Senior PST

Salem County NJ

Where response personnel safety IS a concern, and the feelings of neighboring

comm centers is NOT.

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