1. USA has the highest fire losses, highest crime rates, and worst health outcomes. (add - usfa website - world fire center - crime data - health data)
http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/about/ - USA fire death rate per capita is one of the highest in the industrialized world
http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/alcohol.pdf - October 1999 - relationship between alcohol and fire deaths
http://www.flagstaffmedicalcenter.com/NewsAndEvents/CommunityMagazine/default/2008_2009_Winter.pdf - 5% survive out of hospital cardiac arrest - 10% if bystander CPR, ALS, and ice suit
Cisnero was on NPR recently - June 2010 - he said that substance abuse is archilles heal of modern medicine
2. Emergencys must be handled quickly - very quickly. There is no time to appoint a committee to do a 5 month study - emergencies must be responded to within seconds. add - (2 minute defib study)(fire storys) (crime storys - concealed carry is useless / fantasy)
3. Technology - alarm to roving unit in 1 second - opticoms
4. Good staff - trained & equipped (cops need scba)
5. Change - fire are down - conflagration hazard down - heart attacks down (recent article about medical records) - earthquakes up - global warming changes - more people on mental illness drugs
Presently - the Arlington Police and Fire Departments are organized this way.
Police - Chief - Captain of Patrol - Captain of Support Services (office staff & dispatch & mechanics) - Captain of Investigations (Detectives / Inspectors / plain clothes officers) - Lieutenant of Professionalism - Shift Lieutenants (1 per shift) - Shift Sergeants (typically 1 per shift) - Shift Patrol Officers
Fire - Chief - Deputy of Prevention - 4 Shift Deputys (1 per shift) - Captain of Training - several Shift Captains - Shift Lieutenants (boss of a single fire truck) - Shift Firefighters
Police work 40 hours per week - shifts are 8 hours long - (except - plainclothes and office staff work weekdays)
Fire work 24 hours on - 72 hours off - (except - Chief, Deputy of Prevention, and Captain of Training work weekdays)
In addition - there are 10 dispatchers, 3 or 4 secretarys, and 2 mechanics.
The fire, police, and ambulance business is very technical these days. It might be useful to have 1 'expert' for each of these areas - administration - hazardous materials - extrication - SWAT - undercover - investigations - computer crime - elderly crime - youth crime - domestic violence - drunken driving - substance abuse - paramedicine - radio, telephone, and computer / dispatch - cold water rescue - weapons of mass destruction - terrorism - training - fire safety engineering - disaster preparedness. The expert would be responsible for keeping the agency current on technology and techniques in the chosen area.
If Arlington put the firefighters on patrol, instead of staying at the fire stations waiting for calls - the town could have 18 people on patrol at all times, instead of the present 6. If the Armstrong paramedics were merged into the Arlington Fire & Police, there could be a minimum of 20 people on patrol at all times. (July 9 2010 - maybe the PSOs could work just the overnight / dark hours - daytimes, maintain the exisitng organization - nightimes, use PSOs on patrol backed up by oncall firefighters)