Police Department Demands Apology for Ambulance Fiasco
Sandra Hrysak
Even though the police department found out that the ambulance was in fact transporting a patient, and so the life of a the patient was at risk, the Commissioner of Police is demanding an apology from Southern Emergency Services for the manner in which the ambulance driver reportedly conducted himself at the checkpoints. On the other hand, the management of the company says it enjoys a professional working relationship with local law enforcement and that the events of Sunday afternoon were very unusual. Sandra Hrysak maintains that the EMT personnel onboard the ambulance did exactly what they were trained to do. The police, says Commissioner Williams, found themselves between a rock and a hard place in terms of their response to a tip with false information.
Sandra Hrysak, Managing Director, Southern Emergency Services
“For us, that really came out of leftfield, I mean we have an excellent working relationship with the local officers. We don’t stop at check stops normally locally because they know if we have our lights on that a patient’s onboard. Our mandate for our staff is that you protect yourself and your patient above all else. So from a management perspective the medics did what they have been instructed to do and what they have been trained to do.”
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“To see the reaction of some people towards the police and what the police did is rather appalling. I don’t know what people expect of us at times because I think that as right thinking people we ought to look at both sides of a situation and objectively look at it. Let’s say the information was true and this ambulance would have passed through three checkpoints and the police did nothing and the driver would have later on been found dead somewhere in the ambulance, what would have been the talking point. The man, the ambulance passed through three checkpoints and police did nothing and now the man dead. Then we would have been blamed for his murder.”
Sandra Hrysak
“I guess our biggest concern is not what the police officers did, it’s that there was no, from our opinion, solely from our opinion, there was no forethought as to what that does to a person being pulled out of a vehicle, have guns pointed at you, you have no idea what’s going on, you have no idea what you’re being accused of. That’s not something that goes away.”
Chester Williams
“We are trying to contact the operators of that ambulance because the truth is we need an apology from them and if we don’t get that written apology and it must be publicly, then we are going to bring charges against the driver for attempting to knock down the police officers at the two checkpoints. What he did is a criminal act and while yes, we understand the urgency of his travel, that is no justification to run through police officers at a checkpoint.”
