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The Oklahoma State Trooper vs EMS Mess

This has gone on long enough and gotten big enough that I feel compelled to say something about it. By now I’m sure you’ve seen and heard all about the Oklahoma State Trooper / EMS roadside circus.

First we had the cell phone video of an upset family member recording an odd looking scuffle between an Oklahoma State Trooper and an ambulance crew on the side of the road. It starts with a narrative by the family member and ends with the ambulance dude in a disturbing looking choke hold.

Then the driver of the ambulance went public and started giving news interviews, stating he was compelled to do so by the statements of the trooper in his report. Somehow he felt that the media spotlight would be the best place to get this off his chest. He was followed by his partner, calling for the officers badge on The Early Show.

The OSP finally released the dash cam video showing an ambulance yielding appropriately to the officer and never taking the aggressive swing at the trooper as initially reported. Then the biggest clown of all chimed in when the OSP lawyer held a press conference to say that everything we saw on the tape was normal and appropriate except for the gross negligence of the ambulance crew failing to yield for a full 24 seconds. What?

This whole thing started dumb and as soon as it hit the media circus you could see that it was only going to get dumber. I’m not going to do the typical, “My two cents” thing here. I think what really went down is plainly evident in the video. I don’t think you need me to tell you what to think about it. But I do think there are some important take home lessons for everyone who works in emergency services.

This stuff looks so bad for everyone who works in our industry. In the spirit of preventing the next three ring circus, here’s a few take home messages.

Lesson #1: You are being watched.

This incident occurred on a roadside in a rural part of Oklahoma, yet it was filmed by, not one, but two cameras. There’s better coverage of this event than some college football games. Think about that.

Once upon a time, we could do the occasional really dumb thing. The written complaints would be filed and someone might get some time off and then the whole thing would become a story that we tell while we’re having beers after work. “Hey, do you remember the time that crazy ass trooper put Maurice in a choke hold?” as everyone tries not to squirt beer out their noses. “Didn’t he get a week off for that stunt?”

Now we all end up being interviewed on the Today Show and calling for each others jobs and it’s just not funny anymore. We need to clean this stuff up. The cameras are always rolling.

Lesson #2: Know when to step back.

Everyone has their buttons and sometimes they get pushed. You may not ever know why. But anger and rage have no place in our jobs. As we see in this video (and others before) once you get mad you stop making sense. The next thing you do is most likely going to be stupid. If you’re lucky, it will be stupid like the subject of a funny story that you wish people would stop telling. If you’re unlucky it will be stupid like an evening news story.

It’s counterintuitive to our human nature, but as soon as you feel yourself getting angry you need to step back. Let your partner take over for a while. Step outside. Walk back to your vehicle. Take a time out. Stop talking and think. Stop acting and think. Chances are, you’ll decide to do something different than your original plan.

Lesson #3: Talk nice.

Recently I had an older woman dress me down on scene prety bad. In front of my crew, my battalion chief and a whole host of onlookers she screamed that I was an idiot and had no business telling her what to do. For the record I was trying to prevent her from walking across downed power lines.

My response was simple. I talked nice. I didn’t push back. I could have gotten my ego involved and made her look bad in front of her neighbors. Instead I softened my voice and responded nicely. “I can see your upset. I’m terribly sorry but we’re really just trying to keep you safe. We’re very concerned about your safety.” Every word that came out of my mouth I would be proud to defend on The Early Show the next morning.

Now the whole thing is just a funny story I get teased about at the dinner table back at the station. The secret was simple. I talked really nice the whole time. No sarcasm, no ego … just nice.

Lesson #4: Talk to each other, not the media.

This may be the most frustrating thing about this whole mess. Instead of talking this out between agencies, everyone is holding media court. The media loves this. On person slings some mud and then the other person slings back. In the end, our whole industry gets muddy.

This could have been handled with a closed door, two guys and two cups of coffee. I’ll pitch in for the cream and sugar. No lawyers, no talk show hosts, just a couple of guys who cared enough about the reputation of their industry to talk openly about what happened in private.

I don’t think it’s to much to ask to strive for reconciliation on a low key level before the media smells the blood in the water. All it would take is for just one person to say, “This thing really got out of hand. There are some things I wish I had done differently. How can we put this behind us?” Then go back to doing good work.

Tags: communication, EMS, EMT, oklahoma state trooper, paramedic, partner, partners, responder safety, scene safety, video