Fergie's Tech Blog

Firefighters Taking New Role as Anti-Terrorist Eyes of The U.S. Government

An AP newswire article, via The International Herald Tribune, reports that:

Firefighters in major cities are being trained to take on a new role as lookouts for terrorism, raising concerns of eroding their standing as trusted American icons and infringing on people's privacy.

Unlike police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel need no warrants to enter hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings each year, which puts them in position to spot behavior that could indicate terror activity or planning.

There are fears, however, that they could lose the faith of a skeptical public by becoming the eyes of the government, looking for suspicious items like building blueprints or bomb-making manuals or materials.

posted by Fergie @ 11/23/2007 06:15:00 PM