EMS Union Upset About Proposed Changes

The AED's were a good idea but were a headache. There were only three or four per district. They were not maintained, restocked. Officers took them home accidentally. They didn't work. The radio was tied up constantly with officers trying to figure out where they were to hand off to the next shift.

OK, if you don't live in the Metro area, who DOES provide your EMS service? Are they any better/ faster? And note, that means you don't get to vote on the mayor's race next year, either.

I'm curious, how many LMPD officers are dispatched to heart attack victims?

When you waited 30 minutes, did you (or your supervisor) ask EMS why? Was it because THEY were tied up on BS calls - probably - they get way too many repeat customers or calls where they should be able to say NO, you don't need emergency transport. (Other places find a way to do it, after all.)

I work in the EMS headquarters and as far as the explorers go, every day last week I could count 6 or 7 of them in the parking lot. How efective can they be if they aren't even on the streets ready to respond?

What it all boils down to is another band aid approach to a problem that he created in his first administration. Jerry keeps vacancies on every department, Police, Fire & EMS because he takes the money and spends it on other things, not on public safety. The term is vacany credits. Instead of hiring enough people to staff the wagons he used to send out fire trucks. The Firefighters made runs and could do BLS but everyone still had to wait until a wagon got there to transport. The "Fly" cars will be the same. Instead of the city purchasing a bunch of suv's that can only respond and not transport what he needs to do is buy more ambulances and staff them appropriately. It is the same old BS.