For my money, it's the uniform, the image as well as the actual skills and experience of ambulance staff, and the physical structure of an ambulance. The fact you're uniformed does, at a certain level, command respect - you're not just an individual, you're part of a large group. The associations for that group are that you are "nice people" - ambulance staff don't go and arrest people or give them fines or anything, you go and save lives and help people. No one shouts "shit! EMTs!" and runs away and no one goes on a rant about "fucking paramedics, they're all the same, why don't they show a little human decency..." like they do about the police. You (ambulance staff) are used to taking charge of stressful situations. You are also (in my experience) good at being friendly and talkative even with people who aren't being that responsive for a host of reasons. You have nothing to do with a person's long-term treatment and therefore on the whole you don't have to view your interactions with the patient on a long-term basis (eg, if I restrain him now, will that cause problems with trust and our working relationship in six months time?). As for the ambulance being an ambulance, well, it's big, outsiders can't see into it, so the patient isn't being forced to share personal space (like in a car), but also isn't being left alone or exposed. as always it is possible that I am talking from my arse