Fire/EMS and the YouTube generation — another view. Letting someone bite the hand that feeds STATter 911.
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You may recall that on November 30th, STATter 911 looked at the issue of fire and EMS crews carrying and using cameras. It was prompted by an article in a Florida newspaper about videos of fire and rescue scenes from Pompano Beach being posted on YouTube.
Regular readers of STATter 911 know these type of videos make up a big part of our daily dispatches. While some of the videos and pictures we run are from news people, fire buffs and the general public, there are many that come from helmet-cams and other small cameras operated by fire and EMS personnel at the scene of emergencies.
For the most part policy has not caught up with this phenomenon. As one public information officer told me, the genie is clearly out of the bottle and we aren’t exactly sure what to do about it.
A former PIO (who still dabbles in the field on a fill-in basis) is Major Chauncey Bowers of Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department in Maryland. Currently handling Risk Management for PGFD, Major Bowers has his own thoughts on picture taking by those on the front lines at emergency scenes. Let me emphasize these are Major Bowers’ views and do not necessarily represent the views of his department:
I believe that the issue of fire service personnel taking photos at emergency scenes has a moral and ethical component that often seems to be overlooked. I believe if you respond to the scene with a responsibility to mitigate the emergency, no effort should be spent photographing the scene until the emergency is mitigated.
Citizens have called the fire service because an emergency exists. That is our first priority, period.
Several people will say the photos are for training or other purposes. The reality is they are used on station/shift/unit web pages in a category of “Hot” shots.
For staff on working apparatus, engine/truck/rescue squad, etc., I don’t believe you can justify to anyone why your resources were not completely directed towards assisting the victims or controlling property loss.
For command staff and others, not photographers, I believe they are in a gray zone. When an incident goes badly and the IC is discovered to be more concerned with photo or video activity this issue will erupt to the surface on a national level.
We have a mismatch in priorities that puts people in a position to fail. The same “Hot” shot that people, webmasters/media, are after occurs early in the incident when providing emergency services requires our personnel to perform. At that phase of the incident photo and video activities are not in anyone’s job description responding to the scene to provide emergency services.
The fire service should be proactive and clean up this issue internally before we are forced to do it following a tragedy. I can think of no other public safety service that takes these types of photographs when arriving crews are working to obtain initial control of the incident.
Reference – NPPA Code of Ethics, Item #4
Treat all subjects with respect and dignity. Give special consideration to vulnerable subjects and compassion to victims of crime or tragedy. Intrude on private moments of grief only when the public has an overriding and justifiable need to see.
Other concerns encompassing potential violations of agency policy, photographic content, privacy, investigative impact, etc. also come into play with this issue.
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