Thread: DC tells firefighters to police city streets...

D.C. Firefighters To Help Police Streets?

Thursday, Jul 14, 2011 | Updated 10:06 AM EDT
Video at the link:

Firefighters are upset about a proposal asking them to help police streets so teenagers don't get robbed.

Both D.C. firefighters and police officers are upset over a new program that forces the fire department to help fight crime.

For the past three weeks, D.C. Fire and EMS personnel have been parking their trucks at high crime neighborhoods.

"It's to prevent things from bubbling up. The idea is that if you have a fire engine with adults there no one is going to commit a crime," said D.C. Deputy Mayor Paul Quander.

City officials said they just want firefighters to call 911 if they see suspicious activity.

The D.C. police union and firefighters union say the plan is not safe.

"I think it is a disaster," said D.C. Police Union spokesman Kris Baumann. "You're putting untrained, unsupervised, unequipped firefighters in some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in town to perform a law enforcement function."

Right now, the plan is to keep the policy in place at least through next spring.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local ... 98.html?dr

When your broke your broke

and you America are BROKE BROKE

Gray deploys firefighters to protect summer youth workers

By: Freeman Klopott | Examiner Staff Writer
07/13/11 8:05 PM

The Vincent Gray administration is deploying firefighters to street corners to help protect members of the city's Summer Youth Employment Program on payday.

Youths enrolled in the program have routinely been mugged on paydays in summers past. The city has tried different tactics to keep kids working government-sponsored jobs from being targeted, including dropping paychecks for debit cards. But Mayor Gray's solution is to put firefighters in harm's way to keep the robberies from happening under his watch, said firefighter representatives.

"[Fire] Chief [Kenneth} Ellerbe simply wants a 'uniformed presence' of Fire and EMS representatives to serve as a deterrent to problems on an ongoing basis where the SYEP kids who are assigned to DC FEMS are working," fire department spokesman Lon Walls told The Washington Examiner in an emailed statement. "In addition, he feels such a presence in various hot spots around the city would aid as a possible deterrent to possible problems."

Walls said Ellerbe started the initiative on his own.

But emails obtained by The Examiner show the plan is being coordinated from the mayor's office and is focused on "payday safety."

"I just want to follow up with you about FEMS providing a presence at [high crime areas] and other focus areas to assist with SYEP payday safety," a legislative and policy analyst for the deputy mayor for public safety wrote in an email to a fire department official on Tuesday.

The first payday was Wednesday, the emails said.

Fire union chief Ed Smith said he learned about the plan Wednesday morning.

"We're not trained for these matters," Smith said. "When we respond to violent crimes that involve medical emergencies, we stage a block away until the police say it's safe. We never get involved in police matters."

Smith said it's not clear to firefighters what having "presence" means.

Police union chief Kris Baumann speculated that the plan was put in place because the police department is short on officers. Baumann added that putting firefighters in police work could harm relationships with the community. "Firefighters and police have very different relationships with people," Baumann said. "You don't want the perceptions that come with being a police officer to get mixed up with the image of firefighters."

Walls said the plan was not a reaction to a shortage of police officers.

fklopott@washingtonexaminer.com

http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/ ... th-workers