While responding to a traffic collision, a police officer asked Jacob Gregoire to relocate the fire engine, leading to his arrest.
Robert Kit
Following his detention while responding to a vehicle accident, a firefighter filed a claim against the California Highway Patrol (CHP).
On February 4, 2014, Jacob Gregoire, accompanied by his captain and an additional officer, arrived at the scene of a traffic collision and parked the fire engine on the highway fast lane, behind an ambulance.
In Chula Vista, it was customary to position the fire engine in front of the ambulance to shield it from any approaching vehicles.
However, while he was trying to help the victims of the vehicle crash, a policeman approached the firefighter.
Gregoire stated that a CHP officer approached him as he was removing apparatus from the fire truck.
The officer then threatened to arrest Gregoire if he did not relocate the fire engine.
Gregoire told the officer he would need to talk to his captain, and the officer put handcuffs on him and took him into custody.
Gregoire thought back to the events that had transpired.
It was strange—a bizarre environment, he remarked. I thought my career was over at that moment. Sitting in the back of that CHP car was difficult.
Gregoire said in her complaint against the CHP after the incident, “I’m not looking for compensation; I’m looking for policy change.”
According to a 2014 statement from City of Chula Vista spokesman Anne Steinberger, “the city continues to meet with CHP and supports ongoing efforts to ensure situations that happened on February 4 do not happen again.”
According to court records from the case file, Gregoire was detained for around thirty minutes before being allowed to go.
“To detain one of our firefighters in the middle of an incident is ridiculous,” said fire chief Dave Hanneman at the time. My engineers and every staff member carried out their tasks just as instructed.”
In an effort to collaborate more effectively, the police and fire departments jointly issued a statement at the time, characterizing the arrest as “an isolated incident” and stating that it will “be a topic of future joint training sessions.”
When the incident’s video appeared again, people were understandably incensed.
Someone said: “When firefighters are on scene and rendering aid, they control where they park their vehicles for everybody’s safety.”
Someone else wrote: “Why are people against police reform when they do nonsense like this?”
“A car flips over, causing severe injuries to people, and the cop decides to arrest the man helping them,” another person said.