Daily Press file photo

ESCANABA – In April, the Escanaba Department of Public Safety will officially be 50 years old. In the spring of 1975, the Escanaba Fire Department and the Escanaba Police Department joined under one roof – the current public safety building – to become the city’s Department of Public Safety.

“In 1975, Escanaba embarked on developing a fully integrated public safety operation where each officer was cross-trained in police and firework. The police and fire departments were combined to create one public safety department headed by a public safety director,” the department’s website read.

Gil Truax, a retired District Commander from the Detroit Police Department, was tapped to be the first public safety director.

The integration was not without growing pains, as some police officers did not want to also work as a firefighter and vice versa.

However, personnel were offered the option to remain in their original field or complete dual training and receive incentive pay that the department referred to as ‘public safety pay.’

According to the department’s website, the majority of the officers opted for cross-training and became public safety officers.

50 years later, the department is still integrated. Director John Gudwer and Captain Darren Smith weighed in on how their department operates together as well as the pros and cons of being a combined department.

Smith explained that officers are trained extensively on the police portion of the job as well as the fire portion.

“It starts out with four months of a police academy. They get back, and then it’s about four months of a field training program, which is police. Once they’re done with that, then we start the fire training program which is probably four months. So, somebody brand new without any certifications, it takes us about a full year just where they’re at full public safety officer status,” Smith explained.

He said he suspects the two were combined in Escanaba and other municipalities nationwide as a cost-saving tool.

“In the long run, you reduce the number of staffing because they’re cross-trained.,” Smith explained.

He added that the department saves on operating costs as they share services and equipment and work out of the same building.

It’s hard to say which format is better, as each comes with benefits and issues.

“There’s just pros and cons to both,” Gudwer said.

While the integrated departments help save costs, it can also make other aspects of the job more difficult.

Because public safety officers are trained in both fire and police, staffing the department takes longer as new recruits spend several months training before going into the field.

“That’s where it becomes the con side; we got a lot going on here in Escanaba in the police department to focus on,” Smith said.

He said that because of the nature of the job, officers tend to spend the majority of their time focusing on police activities such as criminal activity prevention and enforcement.

“It’s a balance of, you know, paying both sides equal amounts of necessary time to stay ahead on the training,” Smith explained.

Public safety officers must be equipped and ready to respond to any type of call, including fires. To help with response time, officers keep their fire gear in their vehicle should they need to rush to a scene and are not forced to stop by the office to retrieve the required equipment.

“If we get that fire call, we have officers showing up within minutes, very quick. You know, they can kind of size up the scene, they find fire hydrants and make sure everybody’s out of the houses. So they’re on scene getting ready, actually waiting for the fire truck to show up,” Smith said.

He said the officers being equipped at all times impacts the response time, which is paramount as time is of the essence in an emergency situation, especially a fire.

“I would say a large percentage of our fires; we’re able to get to it at a stage early on (and) knock it down one way or another,” he said.

He spoke about how the duties of a police officer can be vastly different from those of a firefighter, requiring the officers to adapt quickly based on the type of situation. He said that police officers are proactive in preventing criminal activity and enforcement. Fire personnel are more reactive, waiting for a call to go out to battle a structure, car or brush fire.

Officers are not assigned to fire or police daily; they are expected to cover their patrols and be ready to jump into action should a fire in the area ignite.

“When you do have big incidents, everybody, for the most part, that’s on duty will respond to the fire. And we’ll start calling in other officers. We have a great mutual aid response from the county,” he said.

This applies to Smith and Gudwer as well, if a fire starts, they suit up next to their officers.

“It’s all hands on deck if you’re in this building, including myself and the director,” Smith said.

It’s a journey to become a certified public safety officer, but it’s crucial to Gudwer and Smith that new officers are not only trained, but trained correctly.

“We work for the community, and we want to make sure that they’re getting the best professional quality police and fire services that they can that come out of this building,” Smith said.

The department currently has positions open, and those looking to impact the community positively are welcome to apply.

Those interested should visit www.escanaba.org/hr to complete the online application.

If you or anyone you know has more information or pictures before public safety was established in 1975, please contact Noah Johnson at the Daily Press. He can contacted via email at njohnson@dailypress.net or by phone at (906) 786-2021, ext. 148.