It's been cooking out West, with temps in the triple digits and fires all over. The news headlines scream out "The West is burning!" Yup, and no rain in sight.
The summer heat makes folks crazy. Crazy folks act stupid. Stupid folks perform acts they'd never do in normal circumstances (sound like a commercial??). An example would be to stop in the middle of the street and shoot another person in a different car, for no apparent reason. Beat up one's spouse or child. Leave a child in a car, when it's 100 degrees outside.
There was a study that came out not too long ago that supposedly debunked the Full Moon myth that most of us in Public Safety swear by. The people who did the study said they could find no correlation between the number of birth, deaths, or hospital admissions. I have been in this business too long. I beg to differ. Maybe I just notice it more, or perhaps the light of the moon allows for light to let the kooks see better, but I know that activity picked up on those nights. Call volume certainly did, and that was true when I worked as an EMT and through-out my time as a dispatcher.
Recently I saw trailers on two different documentaries. One is "Freedom House Street Saviors". It tells the story about the Freedom House Ambulance service, the first ALS service in the US, ran out of Pittsburgh, PA. Freedom House was founded by Philip Hallen. With the medical guidance of Dr. Peter Safar, the company trained local African-Americans to be EMTs and Paramedics. For those of you who don't recognize the name Safar, he is one of the two MD's who developed CPR.
This movie is a part of EMS history not as well known as it deserves.
The other documentary is about the Alameda County Hospital (CA), which also services as a trauma center. The movie is called "The Waiting Room." When I watched the trailer, I couldn't believe the ambulance parking area hadn't changed much from the days when I used to bring in patients. The movie is shot entirely from the ER.
This one is sure to dig up some memories I thought long buried.
Hunting season is started and our Game Wardens are out patrolling. It is an entirely different world from the traditional street cop. Took a bit of adjustment as a dispatcher. Instead of a regular beat, however size that may be, our wardens patrol areas the size of what my former agencies were in total. In addition to running subjects for the normal warrants, we also check for hunting licenses & violations.
I don't care where you work, that's a hell of an area to cover. Try to memorize those hundred blocks! Yeah, it's taking me a while. I have so many resources to use. And just when I figured out the hunt units, the State reconfigured a couple of them.
Thanks guys...
When a warden makes contact with a person and he (or she) act up, the fun starts. First, get a cover started, with a 45 min eta. Nail-biting time and run the person while I'm waiting for the nearest unit to arrive. After all these years, it still cracks me up. Why do folks think they can lie and get away with it? I can't tell you how many times I've run a person and came back with nothing. After the THIRD name, you'd think the idiot would clue in that no one is buying his story and just tell the truth. BY the time the real name comes out, the officer is pissed off enough to arrest on the $500.00 misdemeanor warrant. If the guy had been honest in the first place, chances are he wouldn't have gone to jail.
What a doofus.
The book is coming along. I'm working on multiple chapters at a time. As requests for interviews pan out (or not), research results area gathered, and ideas pop in to my head, I work the book. So, as you might have noticed, the posts have not been as often as I would have liked.
I'm also been working on some major projects, working shorthanded at work, again. We are hoping to post for the position we lost this month real soon. We have Burning Man pre-event cover until the main dispatch get up and running, and will have it back when the primary event is done. Meanwhile, I'm back to covering the TAC position. For those non-law enforcement folks, a TAC is the liaison between a law enforcement agency who uses a computer data system to run people, license plates (etc.) and the State & Feds. At least I finished entering this weeks citations, about 100 of them. Who knows how many will be waiting when I return from my days off.
The life of a dispatcher, never a dull moment.
and the TBR pile of books is growing. I did read "Killing Lincoln." Carrie Fishers' autobiography is in the pile. SM Stirling's next Embervese book is due out this fall. I'll make time for that!
Stay safe out there!
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