This spring, local Facebook users may have noticed a new page called the Paoli First Responders, combining the social media efforts of the Paoli Police and Paoli Fire Departments. The change is motivated by the desire of both groups to help the community.
Recently, there were position changes in the fire department, and a new Fire Chief, Austin Farris, was appointed this past March. Farris is a PHS graduate. Shortly after, the fire and police departments joined forces under the Paoli First Responders banner, a new organization that officially started at the beginning of April.
Historically, fire and police departments have been known for their competitive and good-natured rivalry, and this organization is a way for them to join together as one team.
“We’re all good friends. We know each other really well, and we like to work together. So it’s mainly just joking back and forth,” said Farris.
The purpose of this new organization is to help firefighters and police officers work together more effectively and efficiently.
“Having a total overall view of what is better for the community and how to work to better the community is where our mindset is right now. There’s a slogan that has come out, ‘One team. One mission. One community,’ showing that even though we’re different sides of public safety, we come together and can greatly benefit everybody by right, by being a union,” said Farris. “You know, tensions are high with some of the things that we deal with, but at the end, everybody’s just trying to work together to better the situation. And we’re just looking to build off what the old organization did, because they did do a lot of great things. We’re just trying to add to it, build off that, and incorporate some new things as a new department.”
Paoli First Responders have many plans and goals, but the main priority for them is building a relationship with the community.
“So as a group, from the fireside especially, we want to create a community-driven family environment. We want a community presence because that kind of gives people a sense of calmness, knowing that people are there ready to do the job. So the community is huge. That is our main goal, to focus on them and do everything to improve that for the residents and everybody around,” said Farris.
The reason behind wanting to increase community outreach and create familiarity with the community is to help people feel safer and more comfortable with the firefighters and police officers. SRO Jon Deaton sees a need for more connection with community members before a disaster strikes.
“If members of the community are familiar with us, they have some form of a relationship with us. They are going to feel more comfortable whenever we respond and come to their house. We had a member of the community come in and wanted to speak to a specific officer. They said, ‘Well, that’s just the officer I’m a little bit more comfortable with.’ If the community is familiar with all the officers, all the firefighters, and knows them a little bit more on a personal level, they feel more comfortable with them,” said Deaton.
These connections will hopefully make tough situations easier to handle for the first responders of either team.
“We know they’re going to be supportive and not make the problem worse. We need to let people know that we can be trusted. So if we’re doing that regularly and putting ourselves out there, they’re going to trust us more and feel more comfortable,” said Deaton.
In the future, the fire and police departments are taking steps to achieve their goals of becoming more familiar with the community.
“We’re looking to do an open house at the fire department, and join together with the police department sometime this month. We just have to get the details worked out. But I encourage everybody to come in, look around the firehouse, look at the fire trucks, ask questions, get to know the people, etc. and do the same with the police department, because some of the stuff we go to is the worst day of their lives and if we can build that relationship with the community, it’s just going to benefit them,” said Farris.
The fire and police departments have had the goal of coming together to form a new organization before, but they are just now putting it into effect.
“There were some attempts to try to bring them together before, but it did not work out,” said Deaton.
This time, both departments are working to make this organization a success.
“Let’s refocus ourselves. Let’s work towards what we’re actually supposed to be doing, making a better community,” said Deaton.