MikesPhotos

Here is the relevant passage from the guide:

The biggest benefit is cost over the long run. While LED technology and bars cost more then Halogen and Strobe, they save in the long run. Rotators, Bulbs, and Strobes have a shelf life of between 5-10 years depending on how often they are used and weather conditions. LED's on the other hand have no moving parts, and are rated by some manufacturers to last nearly 10x as long! Add to that is the fact that LED's draw less power and don't eat up the battery like Halogen and Strobes do, meaning less wear and tear on the electrical system, more power available to other equipment, and the units in the field don't worry about dead batteries when they leave their lights on but vehicles off. Another key is the low profile bar increases fuel mileage and because of the lack of heat generated by a bulb or strobe firing, you tend to have less hazing/fogging of the lenses that occurs in various climates. There are some departments that have to change their lenses every couple of years due to weather issues that they are no longer experiencing with LED technology. Overalls - Less moving parts, Less Power Consumption, Longer life, and increased fuel mileage are the biggest benefits over the older Halogen, and even strobe models. That is just how the technology works. The generation and type of LED, Light Emitting Diodes, used, only emit color and light when on, but are clear otherwise. This has led some departments to put colored lenses on their bars, or as LAPD and LASD have done with their arjents, place colored tops on their bar so they are still recognizable as Law Enforcement. Other departments and places prefer the clear look as it is harder to spot in both day and night while off. It just depends on your departments philosophy and needs regarding visibility in the public eye. I'm sure someone will ask, why would a dept not want to be seen, and so i'll just nip that question in the bud right now. Many departments who deal with traffic enforcement or have a philosophy of blending into the community as opposed to being a powerful vision of enforcement, may wish to be less noticeable when not engaged in an actual incident or call. Others believe in high visibility as a deterrent to crime and want their units to be out and about in the public and noticed as much as possible. Just different philosophies for different areas. Small towns usually prefer to be blenders, large towns with high crime usually go for visibility. Currently one of the biggest complaints about the clear when off feature is how hard it is to distinguish between police and security guards and other similar issues. A key example would be an LA City Dept of Water and Power utility truck and an LAPD truck. Both are white, standard pickup trucks, with just a small seal and logo on the door and a lightbar on the roof. With clear LED's and no colored lenses, it'd be impossible to tell the difference between the two. As for what I like.... I honestly could NOT possibly care less. It would be unfathomable for me to really give a ____ any less then I do. No lightbar ever put a fire out, no lightbar ever did cpr, no lightbar ever saved a child, cut open a roof, stabilized a rollover, or delivered a baby. Emergency vehicle Code 3 responses are no faster, nor any safer, according to US National highway statistics, so the only thing that matters then is... cost. I like whatever the dept buys at the best rate that doesn't effect my paycheck or my taxes.

As stated above, there are Paramedic Assessment Light Forces. On all ALS runs, the nearest BLS company will respond along with an ALS unit. If for example, E5 is on a call, and LF5 is the nearest BLS resource to an ALS medical aid, they will respond along with whatever ALS resource is assigned as well. This allows the department to meet the criteria of being on scene and providing emergency medical care within in 5 minutes, and ALS care within 8. You sound surprised. As stated in the guide, the bread and butter of private ambulance companies are their private contracts with hospitals and care facilities. Gerber, for example, has the contract with Harbor-UCLA Med center for their Neonatal and Pediatric Teams, and of course, Gerber will also respond to every hospital in the county based on the needs of their clients. It is not unheard of for a patient in the Antelope Valley to be transferred by PRN or ProCare to St Mary's in Long Beach and back depending on the type of medical care and treatment they are receiving. At any give time, you can find half a dozen different ambulance companies at virtually any hospital and the IFT's are truly their #1 source of revenue and use.

As bad as that call was, the look was more about the fact that I never seemed to get a good shot of him On Scene, but always got him driving to or from incidents. Not my fault he leaves early.

Mostly that was for game play. IRL depends on a complex set of transport and care guidelines that is way to involved to explain in this forum. Bassically it just depends on how much and what kind of care is necessary. Many times Engines and Light Forces will initiate care and follow up at the hospital especially if additional members ride in the ambulance. For example, Trauma patient requires both medics to work in the box, Firefighter from the Engine can drive and Engine will follow up to pick up its member. Or child with minor allergic reaction requires no paramedic treatment but because it can deteriorate quickly, Medic from the Engine rides in the BLS ambulance with the Engine following. That will be explained in depth later but the quick and dirty is that it depends on where the call is and the type of call. You don't want to tie up a fire suppression resource (engine) on a medical call, when an RA is available, and if both apparatus in a station are ALS level, then the station is probably busy enough that both won't be in the house at the same time much.

You're all very welcome. I just can't stand the amount of misinformation and blatant false information that happens on this board, and hopefully this will help everyone to better understand why things in the game are the way they are, and how to utilize all of the tools included.

You know, I was going to reply directly to this post, but in the best interest of everyone I have completed the private EMS section of the guide found in this topic. Summary: AMR covers an E911 contract territory of 83 fire stations and 16 incorporated cities Gerber is the 2nd smallest company with an E911 contract and covers a territory of 10 stations and 2 cities (Santa Monica and Torrance). Neither company provides E911 service, nor does ANY private EMS company provide E911 service to the City of Los Angeles.

No one gives me any trouble at all.

Traffic Control in the game, just like in real life, is a difficult thing to manage. The cones themselves are simply road blocks that stop traffic where they are placed. Where they become most useful is at the beginning of an incident when you don't want to necessarily turn traffic around and block BOTH lanes, but want to just stop traffic and keep the opposing lanes open for your responders. For example at a Structure Fire - First in engine gets on scene, and you put cones North and South of the incident to leave space for your engines, trucks and other apparatus to file in. If you direct traffic around or turn them around, you effectively block both sides of the road and you don't want that. This way everyone can respond in, set up, and you can have PD handle traffic diversions once you are all set up Another example is to mark off a landing zone... On some of the major accidents you might want to bring a helicopter or more then one in, by placing 3 cones down you can even stop your own units from parking and they will divert around the cones keeping that lane/area open. Remember, you not only have PD for traffic control, but you can call the CALTRANS van with its arrowstick on the back. One thing I've found to be helpful is if I have a large column of cars I need to turn around, I will drop a cone about 5-6 cars back and have an officer just turn the first 5 cars then work back to the cone and start turning those until I get to a natural turn spot like the intersection. This gives me a good buffer and I dont completely tie up both lanes of traffic in case I need an emergency response through the area. Afterall, once they turn around, they're subject to red lights, and you can end up with both lanes completely filled and unable for emergency traffic to get through.

Ok, So I've been a bit busy to update this... in fact there are over 3000 new photos on my flickr stream that I haven't mentioned here. So here's a few tiny pics to give you a basic idea of what you've missed if you haven't been there regularly http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikesphotos_us/ There is just too much to list, as you can easily see. Some key things though: Full walkaround and interior of the LAPD Pontiac G8 Full walkaround of the new LAPD BMWs LAPD Bite Dogs, Narco Dogs, Bomb Detection Dogs Huntington Beach Fire Long Beach PD and Fire Orange County Fire Authority and so much much more! Also check out the videos for the Blinky Light Brigade at http://www.youtube.com/Mountain343 For updates and News, go to http://www.emergency-planet.com/pages/MikesPhotosus/161520368769 or http://twitter.com/MikesPhotosUs

Rescue ambulances are complete which gives you a good understanding of the basic elements of the department and the EMS system. Also added were a few videos I had floating around and a comment on the Task Force brush boxes on some engines. Also since I read some AMAZINGLY inaccurate information on some posts, I have also completed the Private EMS section which should hopefully give you a good understanding of the role of private care providers within the city of Los Angeles (summary: there is none!) and County of Los Angeles.

Updated with Truck, Light Force, and Task force concept

UPDATED 8/23/2009: LAPD Wilshire Divison/West Traffic Division Open House (Flickr only for now) Huge update of 401 photos and 6 videos from last weekends big open house at the LAPD Wilshire Division station. LACoFD brought out their Earthquake Education simulator (which is why I was there) and numerous other agencies and apparatus showed up for a great day. Full list of shots: Ceremonies Hatzolah Volnteer EMS LACoFD Yogi Bear Quakey Shakey School House LAFD Engine 68 & RA868 LAPD Air unit LAPD Bike Patrol LAPD Bus LAPD Classic Cars LAPD Dodge Charger Technology Demonstrator LAPD Hybrids LAPD K9 LAPD LARCOPP LAPD Metro SWAT Rescue 4 LAPD Mobile 2 Command Post LAPD Harley and Kawasaki Motors LAPD Patrol Cars LAPD SUVs LAPD Trailers LAPD Underwater Dive Unit LAPD Unmarked Cars LAPD Vans LAPD Community Mobile Sub-Station LAPD Wilshire Station Misc Photos of the Event PRN Ambulance

I think the key thing here is no practical experience when you state that "bullets tend to make people surrender." In the 14 years that I've been involved in both Emergency Services and the Military, I've found that to be patently false. More often then not, if there is an incident involving firearm discharge, the situation has already progressed to a state so bad that peaceful compliance and surrender is beyond rare, even after being struck by bullets. More often then not, the suspect still continues to struggle and resist to the best of their ability which is why even during transport, there are rules of regulations regarding chain of custody and protection for the Paramedics and EMTs treating. These people do NOT want to go to jail and will do anything and everything to resist, even long after being shot. Rarely do you get the young kid who watched too many movies and ended up with a rude reminder that real life ain't the same when he points a gun at a cop and ends up in a crying ball with a gunshot wound. Those are about the only ones that ever have that bright light come on above their head that says "Wow, you know, maybe I shouldn't have done that! I think i'll just let the nice men and women in uniform do what they need to while I lay here and think about the consequences of my actions." Can you provide ANY evidence at all to support this claim? I spoke with two members of the Metropolitan Police Service in the UK who are friends of mine and both of them stated, well, to put it in their terms, "Rubbish!" Even a rudimentary google search turned up the following articles: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/art...ound/article.do An interesting read is this New York Times article that outlines various sides of the situation with the great quote: If you can provide any information on an actual Shoot to Disable/Shoot to Wound protocol, I'd love to see it. Even special operations units, such as SWAT marksmen, and such are trained to take the target out with the highest degree of probability which is usually a head or center mass shot. But you have to understand, even shooting an arm or a leg can be fatal. If the femoral artery in your leg is hit, even with immediate EMS assistance, its an iffy chance of survival. The suspect will literally bleed out in seconds. I'm puzzled by your first statement. Hit rate is a mathematical equation derived from Number of shots fired divided by the Number of shots taken = Hit Rate. Every single discharge of the firearm is taken into account. As for the clear line of sight, the same policies exist in America as they do throughout most of the Western Civilization. The LAPD Policy manual states: PROTECTION OF GENERAL PUBLIC. Regardless of the nature of the crime or the justification for firing at a suspect, officers must remember that their basic responsibility is to protect the public. Officers shall not fire under conditions that would subject bystanders or hostages to death or possible injury, except to preserve life or prevent serious bodily injury. Firing under such conditions is not justified unless the failure to do so at the time would create a substantial immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury. Why would anyone concievably discharge a firearm unless they have a clear line of sight at the suspect? Unlike in the movies, if an officer is pinned down, they don't just raise the gun above the wall or car and blindly shoot. One of the most critical aspects in Use of Force training today is teaching officers to not lock in on their targets and get tunnel vision, but to see the entire surroundings and situation so that they can better visualize the dangers involved in returning fire. I hope those two articles at least help dispel some myths and give better insight into what goes on during an officer Involved Shooting, regardless of locale. --- Just saw a reply that i missed so adding down below Actually it isn't all that rare. In the Los Angeles County study conducted there were 150 shootings and 438 officers actively participated as shooters. That averages out to be about just under 3 officers per shooting. The most common incident was the termination foot pursuit or vehicle pursuit with multiple active shooters, usually 6+. On top of that, over 10% back in the early 2000's and latest figures are pushing it closer to 20% now, less than lethal devices were employed before deadly force. That includes tasers, bean bags, and OC spray.

My first job out of high school was working for a Law firm that represented the Long Beach Police Dept, Los Angeles Police Protective League and the PORAC (Peace Officers Research Association of California) legal defense fund. We primarily focused on FLSA labor law and Use of Force/Officer Involved shootings. Some departments, especially those with single officer patrol cars will teach their officers that when deadly force is necessary, and this is key, if you feel the need to use deadly force, if you truly feel there is no other option at your disposal but to utilize the last resort of DEADLY force, you use maximum force which usually ends up being emptying the weapon, reloading, and securing the scene. With the adrenaline running high and everything else involved in an OIS, it can take but seconds to discharge 6 to 10 rounds. Being by yourself, the goal is to make sure that the suspect cannot and will not return fire or continue doing whatever it is that necessitated the use of deadly force. 1 bullet or 30, dead is dead. Other departments which have the benefit of additional officers (2 man patrol cars and immediate close by backup) such as LAPD will have more restraint because they know that even if they do not kill the suspect on the first seconds of the engagement, they have additional help and resources available. The flip side is the group shot mentality though. It turns out that when multiple officers are firing, the chaos caused will cause them to fire more rounds due to an inability to be completely sure that the other reports are from other officers and not from the suspect or additional suspects. Current data I have is from 2002 and states in LA County: Shots Fired Per Officer With Only 1 Officer Involved 3.59 Shots Fired Per Officer With 2 Officers Involved 4.98 Shots Fired Per Officer With More Than 2 Officers Involved 6.48 Riverside county would usually have 1 officer on patrol with the nearest backup being 10+ minutes sometimes. They usually were the ones who would empty their weapons, and in bunch shootings, you'd have 50+ rounds discharged. What is there to take from this? Well, I dont know what excessive force is when it comes to deadly force. 1 bullet, 50 bullets, 100 bullets, dead is dead. Officers DO NOT and I stress that... DO NOT shoot to wound. If a weapon is discharged, the situation has reached a point where deadly force is felt to be necessary. Out here at least, no one uses fully automatic weapons though. Even the submachine guns and AR-15's carried are semi auto, or 3 round burst. Pistols are all semi automatic. For those who are unfamiliar with the terms, a Semi-automatic pistol fires 1 round for every time the officer pulls the trigger. The difference between a revolver and a semi-automatic pistol is that instead of a cylinder revolving, a round is semi-automatically fed from the magazine up into the chamber with each trigger pull. With a fully automatic weapon, you hold down the trigger and rounds are fully automatically fed into the chamber without requiring individual trigger pulls for each one. As for 1 bullet is all it takes to stop a suspect, you must have no practical experience in Law Enforcement, Fire/EMS, or Military. With drugs, alcohol, mental instability, adrenaline, and everything else out there, it is unfortunately rare that 1 pistol round will stop and drop a target. Add into the situation the fact that people tend not to stand still and make really good targets, you end up with the, some respects, abysmal hit record of 51% and below. So if you need 4 rounds to stop a suspect, more often then not, you have to fire 8+! You want to get into a lot of trouble? Have a suspect with a fully automatic rifle with 30 rounds, and you have 1 very small pistol bullet. Or a gang banger with 15 rounds and you have 1 bullet. Even if you hit him, if he's on drugs, or really amped, or whatever, you might have only made him really pissed off and now he's got 15 rounds to put you down. I hope that answers your questions a bit better. Ultimately, no officer wants to ever use deadly force with other options available, but unfortunately, sometimes there is no other choice.

Let's see, UAV got nixed by the FAA Tossable Video camera is utilized by both LAPD and LASD, probably not that exact model though Cobra flashlight isn't GPS launcher isnt Pepper balls with stink and burning pellets are MAD isnt. Was tested, but nixed

The hummer is up in the Antelope Valley which, for those unfamiliar with SoCal, is basically all desert and canyons which is the perfect terrain for an off road vehicle like the Hummer. There are many calls there for missing and injured due to off road vehicle accidents such as dirt bikes and atvs. The hummer allows the LASD Reserve Deputies of the SAR team to be able to get there and effect a rescue and initiate medical treatment. It's not an ambulance or anything, just a better way of moving people and gear in off road areas. The best answer I can give to that is that if you are insular and keep your eyes, ears and mind shut, you'll miss out on a plethora of knowledge and facts. Living in an LAPD area gives you great insight into their vehicles, tactics, and policies, as does being an active member of various community policing efforts. Plus it helps that I tend to be a friendly person in real life and have a lot of friends in various garbs. In 30 some odd years, I've either been there, done that, worked with them, worked beside them, had a drink with them, went sailing with them, or dated one of their sisters!

Airborne Use of Force has been discussed on this board in various places, to quote from here I believe that LASD also has instituted an AUF policy, but I am unfamiliar with it off hand.

This is a major source of debate in the Public Safety community all across the country and the world. Paramedic skills, like any other skill, will deteriorate without use. SWAT medics primarily train as SWAT officers and rarely have any time to utilize their skills in the real world beyond some practice and refresher training. Compare that to a fire paramedic who is constantly utilizing his skills, learning new ones, improving and getting better all of the time. LASD manages to get the best of both worlds by embedding ESD paramedics with the SWAT team. Because of their normal function on Air 5 dealing with numerous ALS and BLS calls and rescues, their skills are constantly in use and being improved. On the other hand, their SWAT skills are not at their peak but good enough to still be a productive component. LAPD doesn't have a rescue function like the sheriff, so they really don't have that opportunity. One thing worth nothing, LAPD Rescue 4 is an armored Lenco Bearcat set up as a tactical ambulance with oxygen, litter basket and med bags. After the North Hollywood bank shoot out, they realized the need to be able to get in, grab wounded civilians and officers and get them out to safety. A full set of pics of the inside will be upcoming. They're shot but about 7th on the list of stuff I have to work on.

The selection process for ESD is very exacting because not only must you have put your time in the Jails and patrol, but must be able to pass the SWAT training, Scuba Diving and Rescue classes, and be a paramedic. They're not necessarily higher ranking, but they all have quite a bit of time on the department. They mostly look at people who have been a paramedic and a scuba diver for a while with a good dive log book and ability to function in high stress situations and environments. One thing worth noting, LAPD doesn't have any paramedics on their SWAT team, with just a handful being EMT trained by their own volition

His post is a real exercise in reading comprehension to put it lightly. He asked: The key words being the vehicle like in 1.8. As you pointed out, the LEV was a fantasy creation of Hoppahs to fulfill a specific need that became the LACoFD squad a while ago. He mentioned it was in 1.8, so one can only deduce he was referring to the current squad in the game which will not be removed in the upcoming versions.

I've seen no reference that Hoppah is planning on removing the LACoFD Paramedic Squad that has been in the game since I joined this board. They provide a critical ALS and Rescue component to areas of the board that are difficult to reach by the stations. In case you haven't noticed, this board is filled with lots of little children with emotional and attitude problems. The last thing I want is one of them to get on his little huffy bike and bug me at work Completely different. They are part of the Los Angeles Animal Services Animal Control officers. I believe they are special officers, much like the the Bureau of Street Services Illegal Dumping members. They have special powers to cite and investigate, but work with LAPD for other needs. You can read about a real life occurrence that mimics the call in the game here. The new lights have been documented on this board and a full walkaround was on my site since at least July and October 2008th. In the year since the first units got them, a handful more hybrids, both unmarked and marked have gotten them, and they're hoping for full changeover by 2012. Right now i'd say it's about 10% - 15% of the cars have the new light setup.

UPDATED 8-17-09: Los Angeles County Fire Dept Engine 75 - Chatsworth Lake Manor (flickr only for now) 53 shots and a complete walkaround of LACoFD's Engine 75. No idea about the package, but the FBI, DEA, and ATF all use various fleet vehicles from the ford taurus and crown vic to even these things: The only way to tell what dept they belong to are by looking for the AEV placard or sticker (AEV info blocked by dash but were there on this DEA Hummer)

UPDATED 8/15/09: LAFD Light Force 38 (flickr only) Full walkaround of the brand new ALF Tiller Truck 38 and the older Pierce Dash E238. 53 shots total

Every department and state is different, I can only comment on the ones I'm familiar with. Must pass background check, entry test (math, reading, basic educational test), CPAT test, then get accepted to the acad: LACoFD Tower 21 weeks, 55hrs a week (for the non EMT weeks) - 10 weeks: "Combat Training" - your basic skills such as knot tying, wearing the SCBA, lots of weight lifting running and hours in the class room. There really is no way to break it down since each skill requires a different amount of book work vs practical. 6 weeks: Advanced training - More into drilling on actual firefighter tactics such as extrication, tool use, search and rescue, ventilation and rapelling 5 Weeks: EMT class, everyone must pass. Probation at 2 stations, usually 1 truck 1 engine for a year. CDF: (has changed a bit recently so I had to look this one up) ▪▪ Firefighter I Basic (67 hours) Training (seasonal firefighter) ▪▪ Firefighter I Advanced (100 hour) Training Firefighter II (entry level) All Firefighter I Requirements and: ▪▪ Basic Fire Control – Firefighter Academy --610 hrs Training CDF is more geared towards On the Job Training, they give you the basics in the academy, but because the state is so large and so diverse, they leave it up to the individual administrative units to offer job enhancement and further training. In addition to all of that, many of us will go through Medic School, take numerous ICS classes, and will get their 2 or 4 yea Fire Science degree from an accredited college like UCLA.