| John M. Eller |
Different Priorities:
EMS v. Law Enforcement
| John M. Eller has been Police Chief in Brookhaven, Pennsylvania, since 1981. He is a certified Police Instructor, Consultant, Criminal Justice Instructor, Weekly Newspaper Columnist and Cablevision talk show host. |
This article can be found on
page 50 of the Mar/Apr 1997
issue of 9-1-1 Magazine.
When the 9-1-1 center receives a call for a shooting, stabbing, or assault, who do they send? In most cases, the police are notified to respond for the crime and EMS is dispatched to treat the injured.
When the law enforcement officers and the paramedics arrive, each has a different set of priorities. For the law officer, the number one priority is to insure the perpetrator is not still present. After that, the injured party needs to be treated if EMS personnel have not yet arrived. Then the scene needs to be secured to preserve any evidence that might be present, and witnesses need to be interviewed to obtain as much information about the perpetrator(s) as possible.
When EMS personnel arrive, they may receive a quick briefing of what has taken place, but their primary purpose is to treat the injured. The crime scene is not their priority. This situation alone can cause tension between the law officer and the EMT or paramedic. If it is necessary to resuscitate someone, administer an IV, or treat a wound, the EMTs or paramedics are not always mindful of what they are discarding on the floor in the middle of a crime scene.
Evidence left at the scene by the suspect can be contaminated, new items such as syringes, bandages, tape, can be left by responders, which certainly can interfere with an investigator who is trying to reconstruct the crime scene.
Perhaps additional training for both EMS and law enforcement personnel during their initial training or during in-service training may help both sides understand the problems which each profession faces when they interact at a crime scene.
What happens when the police workload does not permit them to respond to an EMS call? How do EMS personnel feel about this?
I contacted several EMS providers in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and asked them. Located adjacent to the City of Philadelphia, Delaware County has a population over 548,000. There are approximately 40 individual police agencies ranging in size from a few officers to one with over a hundred. There are 52 separate EMS providers, consisting of 137 first responders, 1,185 EMTs, and 231 paramedics, with 129 vehicles available to respond to emergency calls.
In most cases, EMTs and paramedics said they would certainly prefer the police to be there. But in many cases, unless the medical call involves a crime, the law enforcement agency does not have the personnel to respond and EMS crews handle the call alone.
In one instance, paramedics responded to an injured subject. When the medic began to treat the man's injured leg, the pants were cut exposing drugs and a weapon. Another case involved the death of a choking child. The paramedic on scene felt the circumstances were suspicious and waited over 40 minutes for the police to arrive. The death was ruled a homicide by the coroner.
What about an involuntary commitment for a mentally disturbed person? If the patient needs medical treatment as well as psychological intervention, then the EMS personnel can treat and transport to the nearest crisis center, but what about the person who does not need medical attention? Some police agencies do not want to become involved unless there is a representative of the crisis center on location.
Another issue has to do with lift-assist calls, where there are not enough paramedics on scene to help remove a patient and the police are required to assist. Does the police agency in your area readily assist in this type of call? Recently one of my officers assisted a male and a female paramedic who were attempting to lift and carry a patient who weighed over 400 pounds. This officer is now out on temporary disability with a possible hernia.
If you work in an area where EMS personnel and law officers constantly interact with one another at crime scenes, traffic accidents, and other types of medical calls, then some ground rules can be established. However, if you're working in an area where EMS and law enforcement personnel are constantly rotating shifts or assignments, then it's difficult for everyone to interact with one another without some problems.
As always, training is a key issue in areas such as these. If anyone has a training program or information in which EMS and law enforcement personnel receive training which assists them in understanding each other's concerns, I would be interested in hearing from you, care of this magazine.
I would like to thank Chief Robert Reeder and Paramedic Vickie Erb, Crozer EMS, and Tom Johnson, police officer and paramedic, for their assistance in preparing this column.
