Featured Image Credit: CBS 8
Topics: News, US News, Crime, Police, California
Kit Roberts
A firefighter has filed a claim against the California Highway Patrol (CHP) after being arrested while responding to a traffic collision.
Jacob Gregoire had arrived at a traffic collision on February 4 2014 with his captain and another officer, parking the fire engine in the highway fast lane behind an ambulance.
This was standard practice in Chula Vista to put the fire engine between the ambulance from any oncoming traffic and protect it.
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But the firefighter's attempts to assist the victims of the traffic collision were interrupted when a police officer approached him.
Gregoire said that he had been unloading equipment from the fire truck when a CHP officer came over.
The officer then told Gregoire that he would have to move the fire engine, or face arrest.
When Gregoire told him he would need to speak to his captain, the officer placed him in handcuffs and arrested him.
Gregoire recalled how the situation had unfolded.
He said: “It was odd, a surreal situation. At the time, I thought my career was over.
"It was tough, being seated in the back of that CHP car.”
Following the incident, Gregoire filed a complaint against the CHP, saying: “I’m not looking for compensation, I’m looking for policy change.”
City of Chula Vista spokesperson Anne Steinberger told the San Diego Union Tribune in 2014: “The city continues to meet with CHP and supports ongoing efforts to ensure situations that happened on Feb. 4 do not happen again."
Court documents from the case file state that Gregoire was held in custody for around 30 minutes before being released.
Fire chief Dave Hanneman commented at the time: "To detain one of our firefighters in the middle of an incident is ridiculous.
"My engineers and all the crews did exactly what they're trained to do."
At the time, the police and fire department released a joint statement calling the arrest 'an isolated incident', adding that it would 'be a topic of future joint training sessions, in an ongoing effort to work more efficiently together'.
Footage of the incident recently resurfaced, and needless to say, people were furious.
One commented: "When firefighters are on scene and rendering aid, they control where they park their vehicles for everybody's safety."
Another posted: "Why are people against police reform when they do nonsense like this?"
A third wrote: "A car is flipped over, people severely injured and the cop decides to arrest the man helping them."
UNILAD has reached out to California Highway Patrol for comment.