MEDIA OPPORTUNITY
WHAT: Keeping Collier A Great Place, A Safe Place Together
WHEN: 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009
WHERE: Behind the Collier County Sheriff’s Office Headquarters, Building J., 3301 U.S. 41 E. Come to the Public Affairs Bureau first
SYNOPSIS: The Collier County Sheriff’s Office and its local partners in public safety will demonstrate some of the many ways they work together to make Collier County a great place, a safe place.
Collaborations between CCSO, Emergency Medical Services, fire agencies and Collier County are making public safety more effective and efficient than ever. Because of these innovative partnerships the Collier County community is seeing an increased level of service, enhanced public safety with existing resources, and a savings of both lives and dollars. These partnerships are particularly important now as governmental agencies struggle to make effective use of every budget dollar in a tight economy.
Sheriff Kevin J. Rambosk, East Naples Fire Chief Doug Dyer and Collier County Bureau of Emergency Services Director Dan Summers will discuss these programs and the impact they have on Collier County.
Some examples of these partnerships include:
* CCSO and fire agency dive units and marine rescue teams train together monthly to ensure that water rescues and recovery dives are conducted in the most efficient, effective responses possible. Joint dives in response to actual emergencies have resulted in the recovery of bodies, evidence and vehicles.
* The SWAT Medic program provides some EMS medics with tactical training and equipment that allows them to respond closer to active SWAT scenes in which one or more people have been injured. Before the SWAT Medic program medics were required to wait nearby and enter a SWAT area only after it was safe to do so. Medics who go through the program learn combat casualty care guidelines, tactical triage and SWAT terminology. Supporters of the SWAT Medic program say it “brings good medicine to bad places.”
* CCSO, fire agencies and EMS save the cost of hiring outside instructors for training sessions by sharing resources, providing trainers and opening classes to one another whenever possible. For example, Collier County EMS and fire agencies provide deputies with National Incident Management System training, which is a set of guidelines that emergency responders up to the federal level must follow during major incidents.
* The CCSO Inmate Labor Program saves Collier County Domestic Animal Services more than $100,000 per year by providing inmates to clean kennels and care for shelter animals.
* Coordinated responses to certain law-enforcement-related events such as missing endangered persons increase manpower and save tax dollars. By using on-duty firefighters and EMS personnel to assist in grid searches and neighborhood canvasses, CCSO does not have to pay overtime to bring in additional deputies who are not on duty.
* Because CCSO patrol cars are equipped with automated external defibrillators, help can often reach patients in cardiac distress more quickly. A deputy who arrives on scene ahead of EMS and firefighters can attempt to restore a normal heartbeat by assessing the situation and deploying an AED. The agency’s nearly 600 AEDs were obtained at no cost to the agency thanks to a partnership with the American Heart Association.
NOTE TO MEDIA: This event offers still photo and video opportunities.
