Pager legal liability/consequences?

[Golzy12]

I was wondering if there is any legal liabilityor concequences that goes with having a pager, as far as other people hearing one of your pages? Here's an extreme case lets say your at work and you get paged out for a confirmed structure fire at 123 fake st. and the guy next to you is like "thats my house". Thats obviously not the best way for a person to hear about their house being on fire, but could you get in trouble for someone hearing that? Should you try to limit the amount other people hear you pages? I know it's a wierd/ stupid question but I'm just curious.

[thomas15]

Are you thinking it would be a violation of privacy?

I don't think it would since the pages are transmitted over the public airwaves and anyone with a receiver can hear them. I don't think logic though would stop someone from a lawsuit if say a person had a heart attack after hearing the page at work.

Personally, when I'm at work and around other people, I put my pager on vibrate because it is the polite thing to do.

[kswartz79]

Couldn't you argue, though, that you're doing that guy a service? For one thing, he oughta know if his house is on fire by any means possible, and for another, you're a member of the organization that's going to put that fire out. IMO, he'd really be low-balling you to raise a fuss like that. This is hypothetical, of course.

While we're on the subject...

A couple juniors mentioned to me that they were worried about their HS principal taking their pagers away... now THAT strikes me as a big no-no. I would think that if this principal DID take these guys' pagers, he'd have to answer to their chief and that could potentially be a messy situation.

Would that even be legal?

[SafetyPro]

I can't see how it would be an issue. Like thomas15 said, the information is transmitted over public airways. The hypothetical home owner could just as easily hear the same dispatch through the open window of a police cruiser or someone listening to a scanner.

It is, however, one reason why our dispatch transmits minimal information, particularly for EMS calls. For example, over the radio, all we're gonna get is something like "RA41, chest pain, 123 Main Street, 1st Street and 2nd Street, Red 1". We'll then get the details (such as "Female Age 61 complaining of chest pain and difficulty breathing, HX CHF") over our text pagers and the MDTs in our rigs.

As far as the question about the pagers in school, many school districts have strict policies restricting students from bringing cell phones and/or pagers to school. If these juniors are allowed to respond from school, then I can see the need for an exception to be made, but if they're not allowed to leave school anyway, there's really no reason for them to have the pagers at school in the first place.

[VinnieB]

I was wondering if there is any legal liabilityor concequences that goes with having a pager, as far as other people hearing one of your pages? Here's an extreme case lets say your at work and you get paged out for a confirmed structure fire at 123 fake st. and the guy next to you is like "thats my house". Thats obviously not the best way for a person to hear about their house being on fire, but could you get in trouble for someone hearing that? Should you try to limit the amount other people hear you pages? I know it's a wierd/ stupid question but I'm just curious.

Its never been in court. And no you can not get introuble. Pagers exist to alert vollies in the event of emergencies. They are on frequencies that can be picked up and listen to freely on scanners. And honestly....if you have you volume on the highest setting in public...then you may be a wacker. Put it on vibe, turn it down....or leave it home....IMO.

On a side not...and simply put, and contrary to popular belief, You are a volunteer and have no obligation to do anything.

If you are worried about not being able to respond....then leave you pager at home. I myself have not carried a pager in years. If I am at home, then I am available, but if I am not at home...then I am not available.

[Golzy12]

Alright first off I'm really not a wacker, I really do have my pager on vibrate whenever I'm not at home. And second this really is a hypothetical question but I do have a reason for asking, Right now I'm 19 and living at home my pager goes off the other day for a lift assist on a DOA and my dad herd the call. He then went on to tell my uncle about it (thats my dad's way of braging, him and my uncle are always trying to out do each other). I was just worried it might go through the rumor mill and get to someone at the dept.or someone who wasn't supposed to hear that. Then it brought up the legality question.

[mdoddsjffhnfc]

you shouldn't worry about anything. as stated eariler, anyone can hear the pages if they have a scanner and that frequency...and a lot of those frequencies can be found on the internet. The pager going off is to let you know that you have an emergency to respond to. If you want to, after it alerts, turn down the volume enough to were u can hear it (hold it to ur ear) so that anyone else can't hear it. You have a job to do, anyone who wants to sue u over the whole pager bit is a complete idiot.

as far as pagers in school go, i never carried my pager with me in school until my senior year (which the school had set up that the student could sign them self out and respond, i also had my POV then) if i couldn't go to the call, i wouldn't bring my pager. The principal would be well within his rights to confiscate the pager from the students, possibly citing them as interruptions to the school activity. However, they might just say to put them away/turn them off prior to taking them away. I never had this problem, as there were 16 junior firefighters in my high school, and we were well respected.

[VinnieB]

Alright first off I'm really not a wacker, I really do have my pager on vibrate whenever I'm not at home.

Ok......lets keep it that way! LOL :D

You have nothing to worry about.....those freqs can be accessed by anyone....heck that how the news people find out about incidents.

Its no big deal man.......nor is it a big secret.


Stay Safe

[RFRDxplorer]

While we're on the subject...

A couple juniors mentioned to me that they were worried about their HS principal taking their pagers away... now THAT strikes me as a big no-no. I would think that if this principal DID take these guys' pagers, he'd have to answer to their chief and that could potentially be a messy situation.

Would that even be legal?


ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?!

With all due respect,

Search the topic of explorers having pagers and you will find arguements for having them in school or not.


Do your explorers respond to calls or the station from school???

I know for one that if I had my pager in school, it would promtly be taken by the principal, and probably kept by the Chief. For one, we cannot respond to calls. Secondly, why would you want to respond to calls from ? As many people have indicated before, school is for learning and you shouldn't have to leave school to assist at a call. If there isn't sufficent manpower, that is what Mutual Aid is for.

I am still in high school, and can't imagine being able to respond to calls from school.

I'm not shooting you down, as I am the first to remind people that things are done differently everywhere, I am just curious as to the reasoning behind allowing explorers to have pagers at school and respond to calls from school.

[kswartz79]

Well, they do and apparently they can. Don't qoute me though, I didn't go to high school around here.

Now, understand a couple things, RFRD. Those guys aren't "my" juniors, and I didn't tell them to take their pagers to school. I don't make the rules in anybody's school district, so don't be blamin' me.

I'm pretty sure there's some kind of rule in place as far as the kind of call... for instance, you can't go help sweep a broken headlight off the road, but the 3 alarm commercial structure is another story.

Sorry I'm losing the point of this thread but I felt the need to justify what I posted earlier.

[PFDFIREDOG]

Couldn't you argue, though, that you're doing that guy a service? For one thing, he oughta know if his house is on fire by any means possible, and for another, you're a member of the organization that's going to put that fire out. IMO, he'd really be low-balling you to raise a fuss like that. This is hypothetical, of course.

While we're on the subject...

A couple juniors mentioned to me that they were worried about their HS principal taking their pagers away... now THAT strikes me as a big no-no. I would think that if this principal DID take these guys' pagers, he'd have to answer to their chief and that could potentially be a messy situation.

Would that even be legal?

The person who is responsible for your junior core should call the principal of the HS and get his/her take on it. The parents should also be part of it, if there kid is struggling in a class they ashould NOT leave school, education is priority, the fire deparment falls down the line after that.

[MichaelD77]

Like it was said, the pager frequencies are public airways, If somebody were to hear the page, cool, just don't let them get in your way if you go to respond to the call.

A couple juniors mentioned to me that they were worried about their HS principal taking their pagers away... now THAT strikes me as a big no-no. I would think that if this principal DID take these guys' pagers, he'd have to answer to their chief and that could potentially be a messy situation.

Power to the principle in this case. When I joined Explorers, one of the conditions was that school comes first, period. I have my pager in school sometimes if I'm working after school and don't have time to go home and grab it, but the batteries are out of it and it's in my coat in my locker. I could see having it in school after school hours, and I usually do because I work for the school district and the administration has not seemed to have a problem with it.

[GFDSlappyRob]

I don't believe it would be any violation of privacy. If your authorized to have it it's just a wierd coincidence!!! Maybe I'm wrong, but I keep my pager ata low volume on vib when in public for a similar reason. Medical calls, cause it;s a small world and ya never know who standing next to you!!!