Thu Jul 06, 2006 5:23 am
Ive been with Mike before for this stuff and yeah, you get questions sometimes. I mean when theres 2 guys in the bed of a pickup truck with cameras pointed at wailing sirens, you have to ask why. But once they find out, they dont care. I mean come on, Mike has air horns on the roof of his truck ,and they work. Thats technically illegal in Chicago and hes been stopped, the cops just want to know where he got them because they want a set for their trucks too! Thats called a social stop. The biggest problem I find with government is they dont always know all the info. Some towns dont have EMA's. Take Chicago, theres so much going on that if you call to ask about the siren system, nobody seems to know much. Its not something people ask about a lot. But guys like the guy in Sandwich just thinks too much. He thinks hes defending the homeland. There is so much post 9-11 propaganda that gets fed to these guys its unreal. I know from experience because I had to get certified thru homeland security for my job. Some info is practical, but a lot of it is just filler. Just about every EMA guy Ive talked to will give you all the info he can on sirens and safety, thats part of his job, public education. Last time I checked, we are all public. And I have alerted towns a few times on failed sirens. Some towns already knew about it and had parts on order and such, some thanked me for my concern. My old town ,Oak Lawn, didnt test one month and i reported the siren by my house as not working. The guy at the fire department told me they didnt test that day because they had a nasty car wreck and the dispatchers were busy. That happens every not and then. But he said he appreciated that I took the time to see what was wrong, even if in the end the sirens were fine. I still think its better to tell these people if you are going to record though. That way they tell the cops and the cops dont mess up your recording by walking up to you. Plus Id rather deal with this thru email than in person. But whatever.