the police, fire, and emergency medical services are usually categorized inside which government?
a. state government
b. federal government
c. local government
d. private sector
Answer: c. local government
Police, fire and EMS services are normally classified as local administrations. This classification is based on the belief that these are public services and ought to be operated and provided closer to the community as they provide the best solutions to the immediate and specific needs of the community.
Most of these services are provided by the local governments, which may comprise the cities, towns, counties, and municipalities. This arrangement means there is the possibility to be more responsible to the community and be able to address most of the issues. For instance, a police department within a certain locality shall be in a position to understand the nature of crime and other security threats within that region due to its closeness to the ground. Likewise, local fire departments can always purchase equipment to reflect the type of structures present and train for the kind of risks in the area.
EMS also excel with local management because they can also be aligned with other community health interventions, and they address the medical needs of the local people efficiently. For instance, while designing an EMS for a seaside town it will require water rescue equipment while that for a city with many elderly people will require services for geriatric emergencies.
As mentioned in the previous sections, funding for these services is mostly received from local tax revenues but state and federal grants can also be additional sources to boost the budgets of predetermined programs or apparatus. The local services also mean that there are several channels through which communities’ input can be incorporated into the services delivery; these include town meetings, local elections as well as face-to-face interaction with the service providers.
The regular public force, for instance, state police or the Federal Bureau of Investigation are some of the exceptions but the everyday emergency responders that citizens encounter are mostly coordinated at the county level. It is this approach which guarantees that such important services are properly directed at meeting the targeted communities’ demands and functioning in the most optimizers way possible.
Leave a Reply