Ms. Tejas and I were given a large corporate gift basket with all sorts of goodies. We have more than enough to eat around the house so we decided it would be a nice idea to give it to our first responders.

So I drove over to our local police precinct to find the door locked. I knocked on the door (this was during business hours). No answer. No big deal as I see the buzzer. I buzz and wait a few minutes but no answer. Another buzz and wait and still no answer. I knocked on another door without response. Cars are in the secure lot but the place looks like it's locked up tighter than Fort Knox. Time to visit the fire house.

I drove to our fire house and see a half-dozen cars in the lot. The front door was unlocked so I think things are looking up for our firefighters. I walked in to a dining/break room with a kitchen at one end and what seemed to be the dispatch room at the other. My only problem was that there was no one there. I called out a couple of times but no response. I peaked around a couple of corners and called out again but the place seemed deserted. After some waiting I just put the goody basket on the table and left. I hope they enjoy it.

I used to go to the firehouse to do paperwork. They were always busy watching porn (pre-coed firefighting) and cooking elaborate meals. I gaped in awe at all the shiny brand new fire trucks they got every year. Then I went outside and got into my sad, smelly low bid Crown Vic with 100K on the clock and tried to drive off with dignity.
2 days on. 3 days off. The two professions are.... Different!

My PD is locked and the officers are all out on the road. The car is our office. Our front entrance is covered in bullet resistant materials and everyone is behind secure doors. There is a reason for this.

Yep the FD is wide open and they are at home sitting in their lounge chairs much of the time and working out.

The new mayor of our city decided he wanted to a ride-along with PD and the FD. He went with fire first. He spent 8 hours with them. He worked out with them twice and went on one medical call in that 8 hour shift. He admitted he never ate better after eating lunch and dinner with the hosers and never had to go out in the weather except for that one call.

Then he went on a ride along with PD. On a ten hour shift he went on 23 calls we advised him to bring a lunch. Drunks, domestics, a dead body and several traffic accidents, just to name a few. We hit the drive thru as Mr Mayor forgot his lunch. I warned him about drive through food in a marked police car but he insisted and he grabbed a bag of burgers on the way to a call. He ate in the SUV when we on viewed an accident. I was busy and didn't get a chance to eat my lunch. Then we went on more calls. He marveled at how the calls keep coming in on the call screen and we could never seem to catch up. Then we went on more calls. Drugs, gang activity etc... Eleven hours into the ten hour shift he was sore and tired from being in the SUV all night. I told him that now that grave yards was on I would be writing reports for at least three more hours and there was no reason to sit and watch me type. He suffered through and stuck it out. He admitted Fire fighters seem to "have the better deal." I agreed. He was amazed that we couldn't get back to the office until the end of our shift. We also keep several spare rides in the parking lot because we don't have the time

This isn't to slam the fire fighters. We just have very different jobs. Our offices are very different as are our needs. There are a lot of really interesting differences between police and fire. Schedules, time off, court, training and how we deal with the public.

The fire guys decided they liked our idea of doing a fire citizens academy. We had been doing a citizens academy for the better part of two decades and they decided they should do one too. They invited us cops to be their guinea pig first class. As we were sitting there getting ready to begin the class a fire fighter walked in carrying a couple of dozen doughnuts. They put them down on the table and told us to dig in. Not one cop got up as the fire fighters were eating. One of the hosers noticed our indifference and asked why we weren't eating? I told them that we had never considered eating anything someone brought in and they didn't understand why until we explained it to them with photos of things we have found in our food. They were stunned and never considered that we were treated differently.

So in short fire fighters are friendly and welcoming as they don't have to do much enforcement as people are generally happy to see them. Cops are paranoid and a bit shell shocked by what we see all day and a bit weary of the public.

Very nice of you to drop off the “Goodies”! I am a thirty year firefighter veteran(retired 2010)and have enjoyed many such gifts from generous citizens.

Indeed the fields are very different.....people are generally happy after encounters with Firefighters and not so much with LEO’s........I have the utmost respect for our brothers in blue they are very often in situations where they cant please either side....tough job indeed.....Merry Christmas to all!

Gw3971 hit the nail on the head. I worked in a town in eastern NC with about 50k people, easily a third to a half were unemployed....our shifts were like his...if I checked on in my driveway I was getting calls for service before I backed out.

I would log onto my MDT (mobile data terminal) and check busy on the way in to roll call, so I could maybe find a drunk driver to take to jail and burn off an hour of my 12 hour shift....ride alongs were always stunned at what we had to put up with.

And I’d never eat food someone brought into the PD for the same real sons.

They don’t call police “blue canaries” for no reason......

Not only does the PD and SO accept drop off eats here they usually take a photo with whoever brings it so they can post it on social media to publicly thank them.

Are you saying they probably trash the goodies after the delivery person leaves?

I’ve got two of my guys applying to our fire department.

$10,000+ pay cut. But the workload and lifestyle isn’t even comparable.

Apples to kumquats. And they get hissy every year because they want “pay parity”.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:


Are you saying they probably trash the goodies after the delivery person leaves?

We did, unless it was another officer bringing it in...or we took it to the hose draggers....(most little old ladies wouldn’t leave their homes after dark-much less trudge downtown to drop off food)

Never ate food I couldn’t see being prepared either...subway or Jersey Mike’s and one or two safe restaurants were the only places you could go...why, because low payed employees would mess with your food....

We always joked that if you needed a drug arrest, sneak up behind a restaurant and wait for a waitstaff or cook to fire one up on a break....(don’t judge- our bosses kept track of all the things we did and if you didn’t get an arrest or write a ticket in one 12 hour shift you either were off with a crazy person at the ER, or you went and hid for your shift)

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:


Are you saying they probably trash the goodies after the delivery person leaves?

We did, unless it was another officer bringing it in...or we took it to the hose draggers....(most little old ladies wouldn’t leave their homes after dark-much less trudge downtown to drop off food)

Never ate food I couldn’t see being prepared either...subway or Jersey Mike’s and one or two safe restaurants were the only places you could go...why, because low payed employees would mess with your food....

We always joked that if you needed a drug arrest, sneak up behind a restaurant and wait for a waitstaff or cook to fire one up on a break....(don’t judge- our bosses kept track of all the things we did and if you didn’t get an arrest or write a ticket in one 12 hour shift you either were off with a crazy person at the ER, or you went and hid for your shift)

This is accurate with respect to food sources.. other places like Chipotle/Subway are ok, since you can still see them making your food. Otherwise given the current atmosphere I'd bring food and eat with a partner since it's safer cheaper than eating out.

With respect to food brought to the station from a civilian aka 'community member', I wouldn't eat it either unless it was from another PD or SO. It's just not worth the risk.

As cops we sometimes have ridealongs...what do firemen do? Have sleepovers?

I really do appreciate our brothers in the big red trucks...they've been there for me on more than one occasion. But it is fun to give them crap.

As to food that's brought in...I won't eat it unless it's in a sealed package or I know where it comes from. I used to eat subway a lot, but with covid I've pretty much just started packing my own food every night...our little town used to close down pretty early, now they roll up the sidewalks around 9pm. We're usually too busy during those first few hours to eat anything anyway.

OP, thanks for the gesture. Sorry you had a hard time finding anybody...they were probably all out on calls. It was a nice thing to do, and we do appreciate knowing that folks are thinking of us!

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
As cops we sometimes have ridealongs...what do firemen do? Have sleepovers?

Depends on how hot she is

Thank you for thinking about your 1st responders. The best way of getting ahold of Fire / Police is to call their dispatch center and let them know what you want to do and they'll be more than happy to have someone meet you.
In Texas the 911 dispatchers are also considered 1st Responders as well.

That was very nice of you and a kind gesture indeed. We always welcome the public but of course nowadays, it has it's restrictions due to the current state of events. Our houses are locked up the majority of the time,unless we are outside.

Your mother has to sit and eat with us if we ever got drop off food that did not come from an officer's family. As for the fire guys and girls that was the only safe place to use the head with out fear of a gun fight. Everybody loves the FD the PD not so. Never saw a fireman give a parking ticket even in a fire lane. Love my fire folks yep been hit by cars a couple of times... But.. the BIG BUT do not ever touch a Fireman or Paramedics when they are on the JOB they are Family just saying ...VI

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
I’ve got two of my guys applying to our fire department.

$10,000+ pay cut. But the workload and lifestyle isn’t even comparable.

They can usually more than make up for that pay cut with a second job on their plentiful days off. As mentioned earlier, firefighters often work something like 24-48 hours on and then have 3-4 days straight off. This results in just about every firefighter I know having a second job, doing something like being an accountant, real estate agent, EMT for an ambulance company, landscaper, electrician, plumber, carpenter, etc. They have so much free time that they can have a whole 'nother career.

Most of the firefighters I knew were contractors and probably few/no 24/7 call outs on their vacation or days off.

I proudly served 32 years on some the the busiest Fire Companies in the Chicago Fire Dept. The Police and Firefighters in the ares where I served worked equally as hard as the other profession. We eagerly backed up each other on many occasions on a daily basis. Thank goodness for the Police for always looking out for us.

Not every Police Department or Fire Department's working conditions are quite the same as everyone might think.

Very kind of you and Ms Tejas. It's appreciated and I'm sure that those goodies will not go to waste.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
I’ve got two of my guys applying to our fire department.

$10,000+ pay cut. But the workload and lifestyle isn’t even comparable.

They can usually more than make up for that pay cut with a second job on their plentiful days off. As mentioned earlier, firefighters often work something like 24-48 hours on and then have 3-4 days straight off.

Ours are 24 on, 24 off, 24 on then 5 days off.