UPDATED: Is the 'public safety officer' model behind the handcuffing of a fire captain inside a Colorado jail? Union & Leadville officials think it's part of a power grab by the Lake County sheriff.
NOTE: At the bottom of this entry we have added The Denver Post’s concise summary of the relationship between the two departments in dealing with the future of fire/EMS coverage in the county.
Two articles on the web today give more insight into the detention of Battalion Captain Daniel Dailey, the second in command of the Leadville/Lake County Fire Rescue. While one article says that Capt. Dailey wasn’t arrested, the other indicates he was handcuffed and spent 75-minutes inside a holding cell at the Lake County Jail, the same facility where the call occurred.
Let’s start with the Herald Democrat which found itself in receipt of the cell phone image above.
According to Sheriff Ed Holte, the ambulance only was requested for a 25-year-old woman who had come to the sheriff’s office to report a domestic violence incident.
It was a requested resource, said Holte, as the deputy wanted medical clearance for the woman.
According to the Lake County website, Sheriff Edward J. Holte has been serving the citizens since 1978.
When the fire crew arrived on scene first, “to provide patient care,” said Dailey, Deputy Steve James and Deputy Arin Hart prevented the firefighters access to the patient.
The deputies repeatedly told the firefighters to leave, but the firefighters continued forward toward the patient.
Again the deputies asked them to leave, saying this time that they would arrest them if they did not leave.
Dailey responded that he would rather be arrested than leave a medical scene.
He was handcuffed and put in the holding cell of the jail under the charge of obstructing a peace officer.
The other two members of the fire crew left the scene after threats of being arrested as well.
By showing up on a scene without being dispatched, said Holte, “they disregard our authority and abilities. It’s like a slap in the face.”
The ambulance crew, which showed up in the process of Dailey’s being arrested, did eventually transport the woman to the hospital.
In the process, the crew called the fire department back for a medical assist. The now two-man crew responded again to the jail, with an escort from Leadville Police Officer Dave Wineman.
The Herald Democrat says Dailey was eventually picked up from the jail byLeadville Police Chief Mike Leake. Because of this dispute, the Leadville Police Department is now going to accompany the fire department to provide security on all of its calls.
Also, the Lake County Commissioners were in emergency executive session earlier in the week to handle a personnel matter “following this incident”.
Now, let’s switch to KMGH-TV’s story where the firefighter’s union and Leadville city officials claim the motive behind the actions of Sheriff Holte and his people is a power grab. They indicate that Holte and Emergency Manager Jeff Foley want “public safety officers” to do law enforcement, fire and EMS, taking over the Leadville Fire Department in the process.
This article by Alan Gathright has Sheriff Holte not being available for comment, but has a statement from his office. It indicates that the ambulance crew from Saint Vincent Hospital was already examining the patient and that deputies had told the firefighters they weren’t needed.
Here’s more:
“The sheriff’s department is free to disagree with us, but he is not free to arrest those who disagree with him,” International Association of Fire Fighters 9th District Vice President Randy Atkinson said in a Thursday statement demanding the resignation of the deputy involved in the incident.
Deputy Steve James tried to stop Dailey and two other firefighters from entering the building, because he “was of the opinion that there were enough personnel on the scene and that the addition of the three firemen would serve no purpose other than to further upset the victim and her children,” the sheriff’s office statement said.
Complicating matters: “The victim of the crime was refusing medical treatment, but the investigating deputy felt (she) needed to be looked at,” the sheriff’s statement said.
When Dailey “insisted on administering medical care,” as fire union officials put it, he was cited for “obstruction of a governmental operation,” a misdemeanor. Dailey was briefly “detained,” but was not arrested.
“Preventing a first responder from administering care to a victim is unforgivable,” Atkinson said. “The Lake County Sheriff’s Department should issue an immediate apology to the victim and to the Leadville Fire Department, and the deputy whose terrible judgment led him to arrest Captain Dailey should step down because he is unfit to serve the public.”
The fire union leaders noted that the deputy who cited Dailey is involved in cross-training sheriff’s staff to become firefighters.
“It is all a giant power grab,” Leadville Mayor Bud Norris said of the long-running conflict over whether to merge the fire agency into a new county public safety department.
The mayor called detaining Dailey, who spent an hour in jail, “a real abuse of police powers and an abuse of dispatch protocols that are being used as a political tool.”
Norris stressed that the protocol is to have fire medical crews respond to emergencies at the county jail, adding that the sheriff cannot unilaterally change the protocol.
The mayor said sheriff’s dispatcher’s reluctance to call fire EMT’s may have contributed to one death.
“We had an incident where a lady’s dad was visiting (Leadville) and had a heart attack,” Norris said. “She called 911 and she was doing CPR.” Sheriff’s dispatchers did not dispatch fire department “until much later.”
“A sheriff deputy only responded. By the time an ambulance got there, the guy had died,” the mayor said.
Firefighter are saying there will be a protest rally on Monday. It sounds like there will be a lot more to this story.
Currently, Leadville provides fire protection throughout the county with nine paid firefighters and six volunteers.
Holte, a retired Colorado State Patrol trooper who was elected to his first term as Lake County sheriff almost four years ago, wants his deputies to be trained as firefighters, allowing them to essentially replace the Leadville Fire Department and take over county fire services, according to Leadville Mayor Bud Elliott.
The mayor, however, wants to continue the city’s agreement with the county to provide fire protection, said Fire Chief Robert Harvey.
“We’re very well trained in basic life support and certified to administer IVs,” Harvey said.
The intergovernmental agreement between Leadville and Lake County expires at the end of December. But for two years now, Holte has had emergency dispatchers, who work for him, sending deputies first to all emergency calls, including medical calls, Elliott said.
“Dispatch is being used as a political tool by the sheriff,” Elliott said. “When he tells dispatch not to send anyone but a deputy, say, to a fire to assess the situation first, the community isn’t being served well. So far, they’ve had only campfires to deal with, but this is a catastrophe waiting to happen.”
