Genesee County Sheriff Department
Paramedic Division
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The Genesee County Sheriff Department Paramedic Program began as an effort to a problem that was observed by community leaders in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The average ambulance at that time was staffed by a driver and an attendant who had 16 hours of first aid training. These ambulances offered little more than a ride to the hospital. What was worse, some areas of Genesee County had no ambulance service at all, and services from other areas had to respond, causing very long response times. Possible solutions were discussed among area hospital executives, doctors, and public officials.
One of the first improvements in the system was the creation of several new ambulance services that utilized volunteers. Response times were reduced, but the medical care that was available in the pre-hospital setting was still minimal. It was in 1978 that the Genesee County Sheriff Department, the Flint Fire Department and the Greater Flint Area Hospital Assembly worked together to begin the first paramedic program in Genesee County.
The Flint Fire Department had funded basic ambulance service for some time. In 1978 they began training several Firefighters as paramedics. The Genesee County Sheriff Department was the recipient of a federal grant that was funded through the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning to begin a special unit of Highway Safety Paramedics.
The first group of Highway Safety Paramedics graduated from the Mott College Paramedic Program in 1979. They were fully certified police deputies who drove non-transporting advanced life support units.
Initially, there was 1 lieutenant, 1 sergeant, and 14 deputies. During their first full year of operation, they answered about 100 medical calls per month that required advanced life support. For the first time in Genesee County, there were paramedics in the field who could give i.v. medications and fluid replacement.
There was a constant struggle for funding, until a millage was passed, initially 0.35 mill, to support emergency medical services in 1980. The millage was passed at 0.5 mills in 1985, and reduced to 0.4925 under the Headly Amendment. The millage was renewed in 2006 for ten years.
Currently the Sheriff Paramedic Section employs one secretary, 41 Deputies, including ( 6 ) sergeants, ( 1 ) lieutenant and (1) captain . The call load is steadily increasing each year, to about 15, 000 medical calls and 4000 police calls each year. It is expected that this trend will continue.
Information provided by
Capt. Michael Becker
