On November 30, LT ’23 (aka BCE) participated in First Responders Day. We started the day with a presentation by Chief Barbara Tripp of Tampa Fire Rescue and Major Richard Mills of the Tampa Police Department (TPD). Chief Tripp detailed the challenges she faced as the first female fire chief, and also spoke about the capabilities of Tampa Fire Rescue and her agency’s close working relationship with TPD. Major Mills gave an interesting overview of the organization of the various districts and ranks within TPD.
After the presentation, we toured the Tampa Firefighters Museum. We were not, however, permitted to slide down the pole.
Next we traveled to the Falkenburg Road Jail, where we were treated to a panel discussion with a diverse group of law enforcement officials, including: Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, 13th Judicial Circuit Judge Samantha Ward, Public Defender Julianne Holt, Hillsborough County State Attorney Susan Lopez, TPD Chief Mary O’Connor, as well as Chief Tripp and Major Mills. Following that discussion, we toured the facility in small groups. The vocational training facility (which provides certificate programs in numerous fields), the Mental Health Stabilization Unit, and the specialized veterans wing were particularly impressive.
Finally, we traveled to the Tampa Police Department Training Facility, where we started with a classroom presentation about the rigorous training recruits undergo. We then visited several of the training centers and tried our hands at using a fire hose, with the guidance of Fire Rescue trainers. This exercise imprinted onto my memory the mantra, “put the wet stuff on the red stuff.” We finished the day with an explosives demonstration by the SWAT team and the Bomb Squad, after which we made a mad dash through the rain to our final debrief.
