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A much larger and more frequent issue than police/emt conflict over the handling of medical emergencies is police being dispatched to medical emergencies as sol
by larzang 11y ago
A much larger and more frequent issue than police/emt conflict over the handling of medical emergencies is police being dispatched to medical emergencies as sole or first responders and handling it like... police.
There have been dozens of cases in the past few years in which police have been sent to medical emergencies and responded with unwarranted and fatal violence towards the people they should have been helping. That's not even counting cases like Kenneth Chamberlain Sr, in which there was no emergency, officers were notified of this shortly after arriving, and they proceeded to assault and murder a man who had done nothing wrong in his own home anyway.
Calling 911 for assistance for a mentally ill family member can literally be a death sentence, and that is an intolerable state of affairs.
- JshWright 11y agoI absolutely understand what you're saying, and this is not an attempt to justify the cases you've described. However... Attacks on EMS workers are also a real problem, and I am glad for the presence of law enforcement on the scene of my EMS calls on a very regular basis. It is also common practice for EMS to wait for police to arrive and 'secure' a scene if the nature of the call sounds like there is a chance the encounter could turn violent (or that we could be walking into an already violent encounter).
- copsarebastards 11y agoThat's absolutely a decision I would rather leave to EMS workers rather than cops.
- JshWright 11y agoIn most cases it's up to the dispatcher, or, more likely, the dispatching software (if the call meets XYZ criteria, dispatch police).