SF fire chief bans helmet cameras in wake of crash
I wrote
several detailed reviews of the actions (and lack thereof) of the fire department in this crash.
In my opinion the evidence shows many issues, some minor, but many significant - and some, like the totally inexcusable death of this young girl, as major as they get ....
In that context, of the apparent serious failures on the part of the fire dept, which culminated in the death of a 16 year old survivor of the plane crash ... this action by the chief is truly unbelievable. The arrogance (and ignorance) of this action is truly breathtaking.
The claims about privacy are simply ridiculous. There are surveillance cameras by the tens of thousands all across this country. And a large share of them are in law enforcement use. Overall, I personally think there are too many.
Many of these cameras have far higher privacy implications than an active emergency scene, and yet the law and common sense have proven their legality, usefulness and value.
Any LEGITIMATE concerns can be addressed by restrictions on the dissemination and use of any such cameras.
This action by the Fire department leadership adds to the damage. It has every appearance of a retaliatory action intended to insure the fire dept is not put in this position - where their actions can be judged because of on-scene evidence - again.
The evidence, in my opinion, clearly shows the fire department knew exactly what happened immediately - they knew a fire truck had run over a survivor.
Yet it took days to hear about the death and a week or more for details to begin to emerge. On its face this is not necessarily incriminating, however taken on the whole - in light of all the circumstances and criticism about their response and actions that day - this most recent action - the banning of video camera's - cannot be taken in much any other way as to be retaliative ... that the decision was not remotely connected to privacy, but rather to insure the performance (or lack thereof) of the fire department response cannot be so documented in the future.
In my opinion, as one who has followed and reviewed this in great detail since the very beginning, this recent action demonstrates a department with serious failures from top to bottom.
From the initial un-coordinated response that sent passengers running in all directions to get out of the way of arriving firetrucks, to the almost complete inability to effectively fight the fire (including the failure to deploy foam booms and the several defective booms, and allowing fire to expand to fully engulf the airframe some 15+ minutes AFTER the crash, and then the inability to knowledgeably attack the blaze, simply emptying several foam tankers shooting foam over the top of the aircraft)), to the 20+ minute delay in emergency response including to the approach end of the runway (w/survivors having to call and plead with 911 for help), to fire crews dumping the body of the young girl (incl making the inaccurate judgement she was deceased) in an unsafe area, to fire crew KNOWING the body was there and not communicating that, to a late arriving fire truck with a SOLO operator and no spotter (and no FLIR) running over the young girl ... to the, in my opinion, apparent attempt to at least temporarily cover up what they had done ... the actions of the fire department throughout this incident deserve highly critical review of the department from top to bottom.
And this latest decision by the Fire chief - whose primary purpose seems transparent, to eliminate the chance the cameras will show future problems with fire responses - jut reinforces the need for a serious top to bottom review.