Call the Cops The 27th Most Trusted Site in Public Safety
Articles critical of police patrol operations have pointed out that ambulances don’t patrol looking for sick people. EMS administrators see this as an opportunity to practice pro-active medicine and provide some needed revenue.
Typically when ambulance crews are not out helping patients they will do what is called sitting post. The crews park in a parking lot or on side street to wait for a call to come in. Now some services are going to put crews on health patrol.
“Preventing a heart attack is much better than transporting someone having a one” said Chief Frost. “With that in mind we will go out and aggressively help people make proper decisions.”
In other words the chief is saying his EMTs and Paramedics will be issuing tickets to people making unhealthy decisions.
The Chief adds, “I think people would rather pay $250 versus the ten of thousands of dollars an ER visit will cost.”
Some of the example citations will include
– Known high blood pressure / heart condition people eating fast foods
– Known alcoholics in possession of alcohol
– People with COPD seen smoking
– And a multitude of other issues
Groups like the ACLU have expressed concern over 4th amendment violations. They say an EMT can walk into any MacDonald’s and find a violation. ACLU activists are calling this a redressing of the old “speed trap” idea for cities to profit off of.
