Dispatch: No rig available for cop   FLINT TOWNSHIP THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION Wednesday, November 29, 2006 By Ron Fonger rfonger@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6317 QUICK TAKE What happened when   Sequence of events when a shootout left three injured and one dead in Flint Township on Oct. 9:   1:25 p.m.: Emergency dispatchers receive a call about a man "sick because he has a gunshot wound" at Hunters Ridge apartments. Police are fired on when they confront Edward A. Campbell. Campbell is fatally shot by police after shooting his own son and two Flint Township officers.     1:28 p.m.: Dispatchers call private ambulance companies, searching for available rigs. They finally find one at a DVA Ambulance base on Clio Road.     1:34 p.m.: Paramedic Casey Tafoya takes injured police Officer Jeff Hovey in his paramedic rig to McLaren Regional Medical Center, an action later criticized as improper.     Source: Genesee County Central Dispatch records   FLINT TWP. - Emergency dispatchers initially couldn't find a private ambulance to respond to a police shootout in October when a Genesee County Sheriff's Department deputy took matters into his own hands and drove an injured officer to the hospital. Deputy Casey Tafoya was criticized for his actions by the Genesee County Medical Control Authority's Professional Standards Review Organization, which said he overstepped his authority. But Central Dispatch Director Lloyd Fayling said Tuesday the bigger problem remains that many private companies don't have ambulances available for emergencies because they are making nonemergency transports. Fayling, a former state police lieutenant and member of the PSRO, said he didn't vote for the group's finding that Tafoya's actions were improper. "He had to get the officer out of the kill zone," Fayling said. Records from central dispatch obtained by The Flint Journal show dispatchers spent 2 minutes, 17 seconds before finding an available DVA ambulance in the area of Clio Road and Pasadena Avenue to respond to the apartments. It's not clear whether Tafoya left the shootout and headed to McLaren Regional Medical Center with wounded Flint Township Officer Jeff Hovey before an ambulance arrived. But Bruce A. Trevithick, executive director of Medical Control, said Tafoya's actions violated local and state regulations - even if the ambulance was not at the scene. "You have someone with medical training to care for (patients)," Trevithick said of Tafoya. "He turned himself into a taxicab. He did no treatment." Medical Control sets and enforces regulations for emergency transport in the county. In most emergency transports, county or private paramedics ride along to the hospital in ambulances, providing care as someone else drives the vehicle. Sheriff Robert Pickell recognized Tafoya as a hero for his actions, but the deputy soon was in hot water with PSRO, which includes representatives of emergency room doctors, 911 dispatchers and private ambulance companies. The PSRO finding carries no penalty, partly because Tafoya's action didn't represent a pattern by the sheriff's office, officials have said. But the organization does have the authority to recommend putting an emergency provider or individual on probation or restricting operations in the county. Pickell said the decision to criticize Tafoya "lacks common sense" because of how quickly the shootout developed, the difficulties in finding an ambulance and because the shooting was close to McLaren. "I don't know if Trevithick has ever been in a war zone - probably not," Pickell said. The sheriff said Tafoya's actions could be covered by a state law that allows for patient transports when a regular transport ambulance doesn't respond to an emergency in a reasonable time. Pickell said Tafoya called emergency dispatchers to tell them he was taking Hovey to the hospital at 1:34 p.m., apparently before private ambulances arrived. The county Board of Commissioners continues to ponder what to do about problems with the existing system of transport ambulances in the county. Commissioners paid for studies of the existing setup, which allows private ambulance companies to set up bases where they want and which sends them business based on which company has a base closest to a call for help. Unannounced checks of bases by both Medical Control and The Journal previously have found that bases are sometimes left unstaffed, increasing the time it can take for help to arrive at accidents and other emergencies. The county discussed taking greater control of private ambulance transports by creating one or more zones of service, bidding out the job of responding to calls within that zone or zones, and setting such benchmarks as maximum average response times for the company or companies it contracts with. Some ambulance companies have aggressively fought efforts to make changes to the current system ***