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Fighting Fire with...Cops?

Woodbury police officer Spencer Scofield trains with the Woodbury Fire department in White Bear Lake, Minnesota Tuesday , April 22, 2008. (Brandi Jade Thomas)

WOODBURY, MN – In Woodbury, the police will help if you get mugged.

Or if your house catches fire.

Or if you have a heart attack.

That’s because Woodbury has become the only place in Minnesota where on-duty police fight crime, put out fires and respond to medical emergencies as paramedics.

“It’s a good idea,” said cop-fireman Spencer Scofield, as he emerged soot-covered from a flaming building at a training session last Tuesday. “The police are usually the first ones there, anyway.”

The city’s supercop program was recognized this week by the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs for efficient government because it saves money and, potentially, lives. Response times in Woodbury have improved dramatically, and the program has saved the equivalent of 4.5 full-time jobs.

Woodbury police officer Jeff St. Martin trains with the Woodbury Fire department in White Bear Lake, Minnesota Tuesday , April 22, 2008. (Brandi Jade Thomas)

“Good things are happening here,” said Todd Johnson, deputy public safety director.

So far, 10 of Woodbury’s 63 police officers have been trained as firefighters. The extra training is worth $1.25 more per hour, in addition to base hourly wages ranging from $22 to $31.

Their squad cars have been replaced with specially equipped SUVs, packed with firefighting gear and clothing.

Ann Gergen applauded the city’s money-saving efforts. But Gergen, the associate administrator of the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust, said the lessons might not be transferrable to other cities.

“This might be an exciting innovation for Woodbury, but it’s very city-specific,” Gergen said.

But other cities are curious. Officials are calling Woodbury Public Safety Director Lee Vague. “The reaction ranges from ‘You are crazy’ to ‘Wait and see,’ ’’ he said.

Woodbury first doubled-up police duties in the 1990s, when the city began training some police officers as paramedics.

Johnson said Woodbury has since become a good place to have a heart attack — with more than half of all victims surviving, compared with a national average of about 10 percent.

When paramedic cops answer calls today, they don’t have to wait for an ambulance to take action.

“They can even do minor surgeries,” Johnson said, including opening a blocked throat or withdrawing fluid from a stalled heart.

But blending firefighting into police work was more complicated.

The firefighters had to answer a soaring number of medical calls, about eight per day. But the fire calls remained low — the department got about two calls a day, mostly false alarms, and a call for a serious building fire once a month.

The city set a goal of having five firefighters on the scene of a fire within nine minutes, 90 percent of the time. In 2004, with a department of 80 on-call firefighters and only four full-timers, officials calculated they’d need to hire 32 more full-timers.