Part Two: Jacksonville Public Safety Citizen's Academy

A couple of random thoughts from the 12th:

**Police and Firemen hate speed bumps  (especially Firemen who say speed bumps wreck the suspension on fire trucks)

**Officer D. S. says Jacksonville will never have red light cameras.  They cause more accidents than they're worth!  Yay!

**The police officers appreciate the cameras on their cars.  They don't want to have body cameras.  They realize they can be helpful in some situations, but they don't want the responsibility of knowing when to turn a body camera on, and when not to.  Do you turn the body camera on when you arrive to a scene?  Will you remember to turn it off if not necessary?  (Imagine someone getting CPR and are half naked because of it.  And, if they forget to turn the camera off if they use the bathroom,  well.... All that "data" has to be stored for at least 30 days, and storage becomes very expensive.  He said the City of Charlotte paid out millions of dollars on storage of camera data)


April 19th

     Tonight was the Fire Department's night to share with us.  There was just four of us again, but a different four than last week.  Tonight was three men.  and Me. 

    The Assistant Fire Marshall showed us a Power Point that showed us the hierarchy of leadership within the Fire Department.  I didn't understand this before, but the Police Chief is the Director of the entire Public Safety Department of the city, with the Fire Chief and others below that.

     He told us that the city of Jacksonville, and Camp Lejeune have a mutual agreement when it comes to fires (also with the police, but I forgot to write that before)  Camp Lejeune fire personnel will act when needed outside Camp Lejeune, and vice versa. 

     He talked about Fire Prevention, fire statistics for Jacksonville, when and where the most fires happen and why.  (Cooking is the most common cause of fires!) He gave us a little lesson on finding the cause of a fire. He showed us photos he had of fires he has investigated and explained what they look for to determine where a fire started and the cause.

     My apartment has fire sprinklers, so I asked him if they had to be tested or examined periodically.  He assured me that they are required to be inspected once a year and that the Fire Department will check to see that it's been done.   One of the men in our group is a former Marine and told us he was at the Pentagon on 9/11 and brought up how fire sprinklers don't do anything in certain types of fires, for instance an explosion or impact like on 9/11.  The sprinklers failed due to the impact, but the water from them just spread the jet fuel around and created more damage. 

     There was a lot more information shared but I can't possibly write it all out!  We ended the night with a demonstration on using a fire extinguisher.

      The department has a new toy, and the Assistant Fire Marshall was anxious to show it to us.  They have an actual 5lb fire extinguisher fitted with a laser, (much like the police department has for training) and a screen that can show different levels of fires.  When the laser on the extinguisher  is aimed at the screen, it will put out the fire that shows on the screen.  He asked the four of us if we wanted to try it out.  All three men said no.  He looked right at me and said, "Come on!  You got to try it!"  So, shy me went up front and held the fire extinguisher.  He "started a fire" on the screen, and I had to pull the pin, grab the hose on the extinguisher and walk toward the "fire" using the laser to put out the fire.  I have never had to use a fire extinguisher, but now I kind of know what it feels like!  This fire department "toy" even makes the sound of an extinguisher!

     Next Thursday is Elaina's birthday, so I will miss that week.  That will be another Police Department week.   I hope to go back on May third, which will be another Fire Department week.  Then there's only one more after that.

     I may have said it before but if your city has a program like this, I highly recommend going!