Citizen’s College – Public Safety

Ya’ll who know me well, understand my love for public servants, but especially those that risk their lives daily to protect us. Needless to say, I was very excited to visit Fire Station #9 on Walnut Street this week to hear from leadership in the fire, police, and emergency communications. Little did I know, a tour of the fire station was going to be a part of Cary 101. I really did try to maintain composure but my excitement was pretty obvious.

I won’t go into too much detail on our session, since I’m sure several of you are going to sign up for the Cary 101 experience yourselves. But here are some highlights:

Speakers and Topics

Mike Cooper, Fire Chief, Fire Department Overview
Matt Jacoby, Assistant Fire Chief, Fire Department Overview
Toni Desomitz, Police Chief, Police Department Overview
John Maia, Police Corporal, Police Department Overview
Jeremy Schwartzman, Shift Supervisor, Emergency Communications
Fire Station #9 On Duty Crew, Apparatus Tour

Did you know:

Police
- You can sign up for the Cary Police Academy and learn all the things about policing in our community. I’m totally doing this, so let me know if you sign up and we can do it together.
- Police has 243.5 sworn and non-sworn positions
- Accredited by CALEA
- They have early warning systems in place for officer reevaluations based on crashes, complaints, and a third thing I missed
- They work closely with the Wake County District Attorney to make sure they are collecting information that will help in court cases
- Budget $23.5M and $2M for emergency communications center
- Have had body cameras for two years
- Assisted with 4,338 events in 2018
- Project Phoenix partnership with more than 50 apartment units in Cary, help keep folks safe with landscaping, weekly monitoring, conversations with apartment managers
- They have four K-9s including a new one, Nitro, who doesn’t bite so is helpful for search and rescue with toddlers and senior citizens
Fire
- The fire department has a goal to respond to 90% of all emergencies in seven minutes or less.
- They responded to almost 11,000 calls in 2020, have nine fire stations, and 226 firefighters on three 24-hour shifts
- Fire fighters have something called preemption, where they can turn traffic lights green as they are approaching an intersection
- They have nine engines, four ladder trucks, three rescue teams, and two battalion chiefs (one on east and one on west side of town)
- Budget – Ops/Maintenance $28.3M with 239 personnel, Capital $1.785M for aerial ladder replacement and Station #4 rehab
- CAM stands for Cary, Apex, Morrisville – the three communities collaborate for both automatic and mutual aid, there is no money exchange but they respond as one agency. Cary has agreements with Raleigh and Swift Creek also.
- Their ISO rating of 1 allows us as constituents to pay the least amount for insurance possible. These ratings are based on fire, water, 911, community risk, and divergence. And includes our relationship with other adjacent municipalities.
- Random fun thing: The new building, Fire Station #9, is insulated with denim!
Emergency Communications
- Holy cow – take 700 calls per day, 30 employees with around seven monitors each to figure out where you are, who to dispatch, and any other information necessary to help with emergencies
- Serve CAM