I am glad you decided to do a post on this, I touched on it a few blogs ago but said I would leave it for another day, and that day has come..... In the region that I work, we too have similar situations that we have to deal with. A lot of the time there are no police to send or such like so we have to deal as best we can. A lot of my colleagues (me included) won't go near a "naughty" job without the police in attendance, we have loved ones at home that we like to see when we have a chance, so we won't risk number one for anyone. However it is frustrating when we are sitting round the corner for an age waiting for the police to attend, but we can't blame them as they are just as stretched as we are. I have spoken to several officers who all concur that if we have done our "risk assessment" and do not feel happy attending without them then call them, they would rather be there for nothing, than turn out later to a fatal stabbing or something more gruesome. So when in doubt we ask for the police to attend. In answer to a previous comment, we don't carry any "police" gear whatsoever. I like to take an portable O2 cylinder in when it sounds iffy and there are no police to send, that way if the patient needs O2 they have it, and if we get jumped, I can give them a short sharp wallop with the cylinder if I really have to and then leg it..... It is a dangerous world out there, I have been in a few "naughty" situations, two of which have resulted in me "legging" it one of which had me cornered and after a few rapid pushes of the panic button on the radio have had a prompt response from the boys in blue. Its not a nice feeling to have, and definitely not a situation I would like to be in again. Its harder when you are responding on your own in an FRV (which I was on the last one I mentioned) but now I just have the one outlook - if it sounds dodgy and my "spider" senses are tingling, then I am not going near it till I have some support from the guys with the armour and batons. Going back to the post that I first mentioned this, there has been a few occassions when the police won't travel in the back with us. Now I have heard several excuses, one of which is that they are not insured to do so (anyone from the police reading this I would like to hear if this is correct or not) now we only ask for support like this when we really do not feel safe. I have only been refused once and they followed in their patrol car. Now nothing happened, but the guy was known to carry weapons, but no search was carried out and its not something we can do. I don't know if there can be a solution to this, the more I think about it, the more I believe that it all depends on the guys out on the street. The two that didn't come with us were out of area and I have never seen them again since, the ones we come across all the time will never stand back and leave us if we ask them to stay. Sorry guys I kind of went off topic a little then, but it is a situation that I think a lot of the crews (up and down the country I would like to think) have a hard time making a decision about. I like the idea of the police riding shotgun in an FRV, anyone would be welcome in my car when its a weekend night, but the problem with that is that car is only going to be used for "fights" etc, which takes away the point of an FRV in my book. Tom's idea of a dedicated Ambo is also a good idea, but they can't sort out the funding for the "normal" service...... Unfortunately I don't think there will be a solution in the near future, society has changed ten fold as I have grown up, maybe it always used to happen but I never heard about it, but certainly in recent years I have seen a big change. I don't think there is any point in changing the number for emergency calls, the "public" get worried and panicky about calling 999, without them having the decision of which service they want before they call the number. The emergency operators are clever folk (in my view) and once they have heard the situation that the person is in can usually get the right service running. I don't think I have helped this debate have I? Sorry