Firefighters Couldn’t Rely on a Police Response, So They Searched and Chased People

In the weeks after El Cajon police stopped automatically responding to certain crisis calls, firefighters grappled with what that policy shift meant for their own responses – and safety. 

On June 3, a Heartland Fire & Rescue captain injured his knee restraining an intoxicated woman who ran toward the road after threatening to kill herself. He was forced to go on leave after the injury, records obtained after a public-records request show. 

A few weeks later, on June 27, another Heartland Fire captain flagged an incident at an El Cajon assisted living home with a patient carrying a large broom handle who displayed behavioral health challenges on earlier calls. The man had masturbated in front of emergency workers on a call a few shifts earlier. A computer-aided dispatch report states the man waved the broom handle as he walked toward firefighters. 

The captain wrote in a memo that he felt forced to search the man’s backpack for weapons. He found a large blade made out of broken scissors, a pocketknife and a large rock and then patted the man down using the broom handle to check for other weapons before taking the man to the hospital.  

“Our inability to rely on police presence during incidents involving erratic and potentially armed individuals places our personnel in compromised and unsafe situations,” wrote Heartland Fire Capt. Erwin Sanchez in a memo obtained by Voice of San Diego. “My intention here is not to complain, but rather to provide a clear and detailed account of this call to convey the challenges we are facing in the field.” 

In both cases, El Cajon Police Chief Jeremiah Larson told Voice that police did respond after assessing whether to do so but were told they were no longer needed after they initially headed there. He said officers also didn’t witness the scenarios that concerned Heartland firefighters when they arrived. The East County agency serves El Cajon, La Mesa and Lemon Grove.

Larson said El Cajon police and firefighters have since smoothed things over. He said police have tried to address concerns by allowing Heartland Fire supervisors to ask police to stage nearby when they fear a call could become dangerous. Police have also recently taught de-escalation techniques to all Heartland firefighters and others from the Lakeside and San Miguel fire districts that sometimes respond to calls in El Cajon.  

“We are great partners with Heartland Fire. We are on the same page,” Larson said. “We’ve gone through some growing pains since the procedural change but it’s certainly not because we didn’t want to help our partners.” 

In an email following an interview request from Voice, Heartland Fire Chief Bent Koch deferred all questions to Larson and simply stated this: “El Cajon Police Department and Heartland Fire & Rescue have been working collaboratively on this issue for the past few months.” 

Leaders of the El Cajon Firefighters Union Local 4603 didn’t respond to multiple interview requests. 

Public records suggest Heartland firefighters including the chief have raised concerns since police changed their approach to behavioral health crisis calls. 

The El Cajon City Council is set to review the policy at a Tuesday afternoon meeting, though Mayor Bill Wells said he doesn’t expect immediate policy changes. 

… 

After officially learning of the police policy change in May, emails obtained by Voice show a deputy fire chief sent an email to firefighters noting the federal appeals court ruling that helped trigger the El Cajon police policy shift. The ruling clarified that police aren’t guaranteed qualified immunity when they are found to have used excessive force during mental health crisis calls if there’s not a crime. 

Deputy Fire Chief Todd Nelson advised firefighters to carefully evaluate calls, report up the chain of command if they decided to “stand back” if police weren’t responding and said the department would “problem-solve as specific situations arise.” 

“We understand this will cause frustration from possible delays in providing care and help to our citizens,” Nelson wrote.  

The June 3 call highlighted the dilemma this could present for firefighters. 

At about 6:20 p.m., firefighters and an American Medical Response ambulance were dispatched to an El Cajon shopping center to aid an intoxicated woman who, according to fire records, “would not be cooperative with first responders.” 

When they arrived, the woman was hostile and stumbling in the parking lot.  

Larson told Voice that dispatch was waiting for a sergeant to decide whether officers would respond, part of the department’s new review process for crisis calls. He said the sergeant eventually decided to respond. 

But before police arrived, according to fire records, the woman became more upset and “stated she was going to run into traffic and kill herself and then began towards the roadway.”  

“In the process of restraining the patient, (the fire captain) injured his knee,” according to a fire event summary. “ECPD did respond to the scene, after the patient was restrained on the gurney and this injury occurred.” 

Fire records showed the captain restrained the woman seven minutes after firefighters arrived at the shopping center. 

Just before 7 p.m., the fire chief texted El Cajon City Manager Graham Mitchell about the incident. 

“This is a very sensitive issue with fire staff and labor,” Koch wrote. “I am working with (Police) Chief Larson on trying to find a working/safe solution to this matter.” 

Early the next morning, in an email exchange with the police chief, Koch wrote that the June 3 response didn’t match his expectations of the police response changes. He asked Larson to “pause the decision to not send any ECPD units to Fire’s requests” until firefighters had received de-escalation training, confirmed “exact expectations from ECPD for response procedure to these calls” and both police and firefighters had been trained on them. 

Larson replied 15 minutes later, noting that assaulting a firefighter would constitute a crime that El Cajon police would automatically respond to.  

Larson separately told Voice that the initial request for officers was canceled as police headed to the El Cajon shopping center, adding further confusion.  

Public records don’t shed light on exactly why – or when – that happened.  

“In this call, PD didn’t have the information the woman was drunk in public, and I don’t believe FD had the information that is a crime, and we would automatically respond,” Larson wrote in an email to Voice. 

Koch exchanged emails with other police leaders the day after the incident and shared an operational directive with firefighters on June 5 stating that officers wouldn’t respond unless there is a crime or a safety threat to the public or first responders, but that fire and emergency medical staff could request a police response “under unusual circumstances” using a new designation. They could also request security protection if they provided specific information on threats such as weapons, an active fight or a hostile crowd. 

“Mere history of previous incidents at a location or with an individual will not be sufficient reason for an ECPD response,” the Heartland Fire & Rescue memo states. 

Heartland leaders fielded questions from captains after the memo went out. One asked if firefighters should let a person run into traffic or try to tackle them in instances like the June 3 one. 

“Hindsight is 20/20,” Heartland Division Chief Jon Nevin wrote, “but in retrospect, I believe our expectation is that we would stand back for this call and get (a supervisor) involved prior to arrival.” 

Then came the Thursday, June 27 call where Sanchez, the fire captain, felt forced to search a patient for weapons.  

Fire officials flagged the situation for El Cajon police captains via email the following Monday. 

Police Capt. Keith MacArthur later wrote that officers had staged in the area but “it sounds like maybe that info didn’t get provided” to firefighters. 

Nelson responded the next day, after police and fire officials met. Nelson wrote that fire dispatchers had indeed shared with firefighters that El Cajon police were staging but did not share their location.  

Sanchez didn’t know police were there. A computer-aided dispatch report states that the patient had walked up to the fire engine as the crew waited for police support.  

Nelson noted in his email that the El Cajon fire union president had talked to Larson about having police stage closer fire crews. 

Police Capt. Royal Bates responded a couple days later, saying that going forward officers “should do their best” to stage close to firefighters though they wouldn’t enter a scene. He also noted that the situation Sanchez described, where a patient had previously exposed themselves to first responders, would constitute a crime that police would respond to. 

“Another reminder of articulating the circumstances of a call so that we can properly evaluate our response and have a lawful reason to be on scene to assist,” Bates wrote. 

While Heartland Fire didn’t make officials including the chief available for interviews about improvements since the two scenarios, Larson said he thinks firefighters feel more confident after the de-escalation training and new protocols meant to improve communication. 

 “There hasn’t been nearly the concern by the fire department that initially they felt,” Larson said late last week. “I think everyone’s working on the same page now.” 

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