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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: Bob Foster <bfostermed@gmail.com>
  • To: Mounted search and rescue <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] Pictures
  • Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:48:41 -0800

Be careful of using your personal cell phone to take any pictures of a possible crime scene or pictures that may be considered evidence.  Your camera can be seized by opposing council.  If this happens it may be months before you get your cell phone back.

On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 9:15 AM, IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN <ilichten1@verizon.net> wrote:

This is the version from SEPASAR SOG—same date only one or two words are different:

SE-003-080725 Use of Cell Phones, Cameras, and Similar Devices

 

I. Purpose: This Standard Operating Guideline is formulated to provide policy guidance for members using photographic or video recording devices or transmitting mission related data to other members, the press, subject family members, or other officials. The guidance in this guideline has been developed based on materials furnished by VFIS (SEPASAR’s insurance carrier), Federal HIPPA guidance, and other official sources.

II.                   Use of Devices, Generally: It is permissible for a member to use their personal camera or recording device to record what they consider to be significant evidence and transmit same to the command post or other destination as directed by the Incident Commander or his delegate.

III.                  Prohibited Uses, Generally: It is not permitted to transmit images or voice recordings or make live statements to persons the member has not been given permission to do so by the Incident Commander or his delegate and is not under compulsion of a court order to make such statements or deliver evidence.

IV.               Specific Prohibitions:

A.     Medical Conditions: It is prohibited by HIPPA and other federal regulations to transmit identifiable medical information to any person the patient has not authorized and or is not involved in the emergency care of that person if the patient is not capable of giving written consent. Example: pictures of the patient indicating the mechanism of injury may be appropriately transmitted to the medical command physician on his order so that treatment may be more appropriately guided.

B.     Evidence: Images of clothes, tracks, vehicles, bodies, or other tangible evidence shall not be transmitted except under direct order of the Incident Commander or his delegate and then only to the designated receiver.  No images of deceased persons or animals shall be transmitted without the authorization of the coroner or medical examiner in addition to the Incident Commander.

C.     Identifiable Persons: No image of an identifiable person, dead or alive, shall be transmitted without that person’s consent unless the image is considered evidence, as in identifying a witness or a suspect or the subject.  The issuance of flyers or wanted posters shall constitute release of the image to the audience the flyers or posters are directed to.

V.                 Penalties: Any member violating this policy or guideline shall be referred for discipline in accordance with the established SEPASAR guidelines and Bylaws. In addition to expulsion the penalty may include indemnification of SEPASAR against the civil or other damages that may be imposed by the civil authorities.

 

 

Note: In Pennsylvania a fire company is an independent, usually all volunteer, organization that functions within a contract (ordinance) to provide the fire suppression and possibly EMS, to a municipality (township, borough) as state law requires the municipality to provide fire, EMS, and police to its residents but doesn’t say how. SAR may be conducted by a government employee who is responsible to his employer’s directives, or volunteers who are responsible to the NGO they volunteer for and are considered employees of the municipality for comp purposes and agents of the municipality under the contract or mutual aid agreements that supplement the emergency services agreement.  Mutual aid is mandated under the 9-1-1 law and may be obtained through an EMAC-like agreement between municipalities.  PA is about to start licensing all special operations organizations through the Health Department. Organizations that do not BILL for EMS services or do not use electronic transmission of billing information are technically exempt from HIPPA according to the lawyers which would exempt extrication and or rescue only organizations as differentiated from transport EMS which does charge and transmits their billing data via software to a billing office.  However, best practice is to follow HIPPA on a precautionary basis.

The lawyers also brought up PA’s Wire Tapping statute which prohibits audio recording without the explicit permission of everybody in earshot of the recording device.

So video is alright, not being mentioned in the statute which was written around 1927, but no sound except at a public news event. 

Can anyone save us from the lawyers?  

Irv Lichtenstein

SE PA SAR

 


From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of T'mi Finkle
Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2012 10:20 AM


To: 'Mounted search and rescue'
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Pictures

 

Our team is a member of the Pennsylvania Search and Rescue Council; most SAR teams within the State (PA) do not have this type of (local) fire company SOG.  Is there a SOG specially written in your response area for volunteer SAR teams that are not part of volunteer fire companies?  Placing this topic in a SAR prospective; I think item IV-B in the fire company’s manual sums what the same thing that I had said earlier.

 

Thanks,

 

 

 


From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN
Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2012 12:26 AM
To: 'Mounted search and rescue'
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Pictures


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