+1 Howard County EMA officer

[bluewraith]

Went out for breakfast this morning with my girlfriend to Bob Evans around noon. OC, as the norm for me. I noticed the EMA car in the lot as we pulled in and kinda figured I would get questioned.
Before the meal I had to go wash my hands and on my way out of the restroom, the EMA officer was waiting outside for me. He asked of I was with a law enforcement agency and I said nope, just out with my girlfriend. He asked if I had my "permit" and after I said yes I do, I started reaching in my pocket for my wallet.. he stopped me and said "No, I believe you." Cool deal.. didn't ask to see ID or LTCH.
Turns out he kinda recognized me from a car wreck we worked at the FD a few days ago. We chat for a little bit about the wreck and a missing person we ran on in November and that was that. Merry Christmases were exchanged and we went on with our lives.

 

[22rssix]

Are the EMA's law enforcement? For some reason I don't think they are. If not why would he be asking for LTCH info.

 

[littletommy]

So...what the hell business is it of his? Why plus 1 for a nosey jack ass overstepping his authority, whatever that may be? I'm missing something.

 

[Bunnykid68]

I never heard of EMA being LEO

 

[Jack Burton]

what's an EMA?

 

[jsharmon7]

what's an EMA?

County emergency management guys.

 

[WC Deer Hunter]

what's an EMA?

Yeah what he said^^^^^^

 

[littletommy]

what's an EMA?

It some douche bag that wanted to be a cop but couldn't make the cut, but still thinks it's his responsibility to question OCers as to if they are legally carrying or not, because there has been a recent wave of criminal OC events at Bob Evans restaurants lately. Or, sometimes, it's just some douche bag that wants to show his old man buddies how cool he is because he collects a paycheck from the taxpayers he despises. Take your pick.

 

[ryanbr]

Went out for breakfast this morning with my girlfriend to Bob Evans around noon. OC, as the norm for me. I noticed the EMA car in the lot as we pulled in and kinda figured I would get questioned.
Before the meal I had to go wash my hands and on my way out of the restroom, the EMA officer was waiting outside for me. He asked of I was with a law enforcement agency and I said nope, just out with my girlfriend. He asked if I had my "permit" and after I said yes I do, I started reaching in my pocket for my wallet.. he stopped me and said "No, I believe you." Cool deal.. didn't ask to see ID or LTCH.
Turns out he kinda recognized me from a car wreck we worked at the FD a few days ago. We chat for a little bit about the wreck and a missing person we ran on in November and that was that. Merry Christmases were exchanged and we went on with our lives.

He has no authority what so ever to stop or question you unless is is in some form of official duty? Was Bob Evans under attack. Shoulda told him to pund sand! or atleast ignored him!

 

[Rookie]

Howard county uses EMA a lot. When they are on duty, they have arrest powers.

 

[ryanbr]

Howard county uses EMA a lot. When they are on duty, they have arrest powers.

When on Duty. When not on duty they have no powers what so ever! I am pretty sure that they dont have arrest powers eating breakfast at Bob Evans.

 

[sbcman]

The OP can fill us in if I'm wrong here (frequently am), but I don't get the impression that this EMA (first of hearing of one for me) was "checking" the OP. It seems like he was just asking if he was a leo, initially maybe to just introduce himself and strike up dialogue. Could be wrong, but it doesn't seem like this guy was coming off negative to me

What I do fault this entire situation for is making me hungry for some Bob Evans.

 

[bluewraith]

Howard County EMA, from my experience, are mainly volunteers. They do have some paid deputies, but the majority are not on the books. They are also well known for going above and beyond their powers at any available opportunity, so I was fully prepared to be stopped by him. He was in full uniform, with a badge that labled him as a police officer. His car was only labeled "Howard County Emergency Managment Agency". What I was surprised about was that he only asked if I had my license(permit, to him.. but whatever). When I said that I did, that was it. He didn't want to see it, nor my drivers license.
After I told him that I did have my LTCH, he dropped the topic entirely. He didn't say anything about my firearm, nor my choice of carry style. We did however talk briefly about the work that we do. I was wearing my FD t-shirt and ball cap, which he noticed and that's where he recognized me from.

Did he have the right to stop me? Probably not.
Do I care? Not really.
Was he professional? Yes.

Now then, for another story about the EMA guys.. We were working a public education even with the smoke trailer and one of our fire trucks in front of Big Lots earlier this year. Someone had parked in front of the building and ran back inside to pick up a big box item to load. While the guy was inside one of the EMA guys drove up, parked behind him, and came to us asking if it was one of our vehicles. After we said it wasn't, he said "Ok, well I'm going to write him a ticket for parking in loading zone" ...!!!
Whatever man.. as he was getting back into the car and started running the plates, the owner came back out with the store manager and loaded the box into the car and left. EMA guy looked kinda ticked after that.. but we heard him on the radio later on writing a ticket somewhere else. Oh, btw.. he was in street cloths and had his wife or girlfriend in the car with him. Yeah, that pretty much told me what to expect with the encounter today.


-edit-
Also, if I had told him to pound sand it would have caused a scene. Just because he does not have the power to arrest while not on duty does not mean he cannot call up dispatch and have a real officer come out and ruin the day. Can you imagine what could have happened had the situation been different? "Do you have your license?" "None of your business, go back to your coffee and Border Scramble" Yeah, the real boys in blue would have shown up in force for a guy with a gun and an attitude. I'm not a big fan of being on the business end of a taser. Besides, I had sweet tea and breakfast to attend to.

 

[jsharmon7]

Sounds to me like there's a high likelihood you'll be working with this guy on scenes in the future. I would say you definitely made the right decision to play nice in the interest of getting along with this guy in the future. You wouldn't want interpersonal drama between you two while standing at the scene of another crash/fire/etc.

 

[Mosinguy]

It sounds like he was just making conversation He didn't ASK to see ID so he didnt do anything bad. No one was in the wrong here and everyone had Bob Evans. Good day all around

 

[modelflyer2003]

"You can't beat Bob Evans." as the TV commercial says.

 

[ryanbr]

Went out for breakfast this morning with my girlfriend to Bob Evans around noon. OC, as the norm for me. I noticed the EMA car in the lot as we pulled in and kinda figured I would get questioned.
Before the meal I had to go wash my hands and on my way out of the restroom, the EMA officer was waiting outside for me. He asked of I was with a law enforcement agency and I said nope, just out with my girlfriend. He asked if I had my "permit" and after I said yes I do, I started reaching in my pocket for my wallet.. he stopped me and said "No, I believe you." Cool deal.. didn't ask to see ID or LTCH.
Turns out he kinda recognized me from a car wreck we worked at the FD a few days ago. We chat for a little bit about the wreck and a missing person we ran on in November and that was that. Merry Christmases were exchanged and we went on with our lives.

He was waiting for him outside the restroom. He had no right or Authority to ask if he had a permit. He could have called anyone he wanted to. He had done nothing wrong. Th Op is entitled to act anyway he chooses to. I am not condoning him for his action. I personally would have told mister EMA none of his buisness. If this would have been an off duty leo people on this forum would have been jumping all over this off duty leo. I am almost positive that a person associated with ema has far less power than a Reserve Deputy. A sheriff would rip a Reserve a new one for questioning anyone about their permit and calling that in when the op had done nothing wrong! I am not sure and would like to see Where EMA has any kind of arrest powers whatso ever anyway.

It could be that he was just making small talk because he did recognized him. Asking if he was leo fine, but then asking about permit is where I would have the problem. At that point it is none of his buisness and nothing he could do about it.

 

[hoosierdoc]

I don't mind random conversations with strangers who are interested in things I am interested in. Not sure why we get so defensive about discussions involving aspects of firearms when that's mainly what we do on this website.

"do you have a permit for that?"
"why, are you interested in obtaining a license? I know a great website forum full of advice on how to obtain one and then legally carry a handgun. That's where I learned"

 

[Indy317]

It some douche bag that wanted to be a cop but couldn't make the cut, but still thinks it's his responsibility to question OCers...

OK. Some OCers here say that one of the reasons they OC is to educate people who may ask about the gun. So are all these people who ask, nicely or not, an OCer about their handgun douche bags, or does that only apply to government employees?

He was waiting for him outside the restroom. He had no right or Authority to ask if he had a permit. He could have called anyone he wanted to.

So to deal with anyone who wants to ask an OCer about their handgun, should we encourage them to contact LEO instead of just striking up conversation about the sidearm? I thought OCers would rather have a population that doesn't automatically dial 911 at the mere sight of a handgun?

 

[littletommy]

OK. Some OCers here say that one of the reasons they OC is to educate people who may ask about the gun. So are all these people who ask, nicely or not, an OCer about their handgun douche bags, or does that only apply to government employees?

I'm basing that on the OPs first few sentences of his post. He stated he knew he would probably be questioned, suggesting these EMA guys have a history of trying to play cop. He also stated the guy was waiting for him when he came out of the restroom, suggesting, to me, the guy was going to question him as if he was a cop. In my opinion, an EMA guy, whatever that may be, acting like a cop, is a douche bag, period.