Still seems odd to me that our charge nurse, nor the house supervisor seemed to know that there was any law enforcement present. I'm not saying your a liar John, because I know better, I am saying there was an intense breakdown of communication. I can accept that the situation was chaotic. If this had happened in any other city I had worked in previously, nobody would have gotten too upset. But taken in the context of the lack of support we had received previously from OPD, we were already edgy. The irony of Costas complaints about how city taxes shouldn't be used to provide PSPH security is that OPD informally has used our ED as a back up jail facility.
I am defensive, about the whole situation. We've had an unbelievable amount of assaults against the ER nurses that go unnoticed, it's freakin shocking. I work with 80% middle aged or older women, who are expected to deal with alot of the same population of drunks, and violent offenders that city PD deals with, except without the body armor, the gun, or the knowledge that they are supported by anybody except their immediate coworkers.
I'm not speaking up because I am in mortal fear for my own safety, that's cowardice. I am speaking up because I genuinely feel one of my coworkers is going to be killed if there isn't better cooperation with the city PD.

Let me repeat this, this is important enough to me, that I have put my employment at jeopardy, I have used my own name and identity in my posts, because I feel that one of my coworkers will be killed if there is not better cooperation. I have risked alienating my friends in law enforcement, because I genuinely feel that my coworkers are at risk of getting murdered. I don't think that this particular incident had the capacity to lead to that kind of tragedy, but the lack of communication and response will eventually lead to something terrible happening.

I invite any LE officers to talk with the staff nurses in the ER about the concerns I've mentioned.

This is not about the reputation of the City of Olympia, not about the reputation of OPD, nor of TCSO, the primary concern should not be about anybody's reputation, it should be about safety. If people want to think I'm an ahole for being protective of the women I work with, then color my sphincter brown. But that whole primary concern of mine, my coworkers safety, has gotten lost in the argument. And no health system can deal with violent offenders safely without a working partnership with local LE.

Vince