WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

treeny wrote:its on the State Law Publisher, and thats a publicly accessible. From memory, certain sections of the act refer to members of the public.

I'm not sure what you're referring to - I know the Act will be on the State Law Publisher's website, all the Acts are. But I was referring particularly to this policy document. I don't know if that is public or not - my initial reaction was that if it's behind a password-protected website, then it's certainly not "public" information, and so people who do have access need to make sure that they respect the confidentiality provisions.

The login is the same as your FESA online login, that's if you have done the online log on. Its very interesting to note though. I think that the more footage/pics the better as you never know what may happen later on, ie someone sue's etc and you cover your bum by having evidence. Or prosecute a criminal or arsonist. Especially at a house fire, car fire, accident. It is more due to the fact that we are uploading pics of other fire fighters faces on the web ie here at warsug, and also uploading video footage onto youtube ie maddington incident.

Remembering of course not everyone on the board is a volunteer or full time member of staff and is therefore not privy to much of the information stored behind that login page. This may or may not be for a reason, some circulars I'm sure exist that should not be made public, others will be made public in time and others are public in a different format. Regardless what Zebedee is saying is that Operational circulars should not be quoted and referenced to here. In their current format they're not for public viewing otherwise there'd be a circulars link on the main FESA webpage.
No one will argue against your photographing of evidence if it is likely to be either destroyed by fire or flee on foot/vehicle. For this reason Darlington has a camera in each of the light tankers for use when there are such occurrences. These can then be turned over to police/arson squad investigators as appropriate.

Oh and until anyone has signed that they have read the document, no one can touch you legally as you have not sighted the document.

Helitak_670 wrote:Oh and until anyone has signed that they have read the document, no one can touch you legally as you have not sighted the document.

As any lawyer will tell you, ignorance is not a defence

We also have a camera in the glovebox of each of our rescue vehicles. these are the only cameras pics can be taken with. reason being we hav control of what happens to the pics on that camera.

Helitak_670 wrote:Oh and until anyone has signed that they have read the document, no one can touch you legally as you have not sighted the document.

That is the worst comment ever and completely and utterly wrong!

From what I have seen in other services in other states, I think you may find that the policy exists to stop staff (paid or otherwise) taking time out to take image or video , after all the members are there to perform a specific task.

The media will do what they do and like in other states if the various services need footage they will just ask for it.

As with other states and yours by the looks of it some trucks have cameras on them and after the heat (bad pun) of the moment the officer may instruct photos to be taken for training or other reasons.

Like I said this is what happens in most states , basically it keeps the workers working and not performing secondary tasks that are not beneficial to the service(s).

Hope it makes sense and helps.

Matt

i think everyone is talking out of there butt

and this policy dosen't apply to volunteers, media or civil people.

AVBFS wrote:i think everyone is talking out of there arse

and this policy dosen't apply to volunteers, media or civil people.

I think you would find it does cover VFRS brigades and even SES. BFB brigades can be a different story though. The policy was never intended to cover the media or civillian.

AVBFS wrote:i think everyone is talking out of there arse

and this policy dosen't apply to volunteers, media or civil people.

Due to the fact that the circular was widely distributed to volunteer units, it would appear that the intent of the policy is that it does apply to volunteers.

Don't forget that, for legal purposes, a volunteer is regarded as an employee of the organisation, albeit an unpaid employee and therefore all rights and responsibilities apply as in any other employer/employee relationship.

Magnus wrote:

AVBFS wrote:i think everyone is talking out of there arse

and this policy dosen't apply to volunteers, media or civil people.

Due to the fact that the circular was widely distributed to volunteer units, it would appear that the intent of the policy is that it does apply to volunteers.

Don't forget that, for legal purposes, a volunteer is regarded as an employee of the organisation, albeit an unpaid employee and therefore all rights and responsibilities apply as in any other employer/employee relationship.

Bollocks. It isn't a policy either, its LAW.

This is to do with the FESA Act, nothing more. The clause in the act and definitions clearly state who it applies to. You can't magically add or take definitions from elsewhere, this isn't how acts are interpreted. It does not apply to volunteers as they are not defined as staff or members *unless* they are part of one of the consultative committee's.

http://warsug.info/viewtopic.php?p=77827#p77827

Can we put this to bed now?

Topic locked.

To anyone who is a Volunteer within FESA - if you are not sure from the discussion whether their statement on photographs affects you, contact your Area Manager. If it DOES affect you, and you post photos of incidents at which you attended, you do so at your own risk.