Michigan Law and the Arbitrator’s Order Are Clear
The Police Officers Association of Michigan represents the Emergency Medical Service Officers Association, the union for Detroit’s EMS supervisors and paramedics, and we are not standing by while the Detroit Fire Department disregards the medical judgment of the people trained to exercise it.
State law requires that on-scene medical decisions rest with the highest-licensed provider present. A March 2026 arbitrator’s order confirmed that authority for EMS supervisors on Detroit’s emergency calls. The Fire Department has not complied.
A Pattern of Preventable Incidents
Since January 2025, POAM has tracked more than 5,000 incidents in which Code 1 cardiac arrest patients received a lower level of care than the law and the arbitrator’s order require, because a paramedic unit was not dispatched.
July 2023: An Order That Never Arrived
A supervisor’s CPR instruction was never relayed to first responders on scene, and a drowning victim died.
January 2026: The Wrong House
Firefighters broke into the wrong house rather than wait for direction from an EMS supervisor.
Summer 2026: Delayed Cardiac Arrest Response
This summer, two more cardiac arrest calls saw delayed responses.
These are not isolated errors. They are the predictable result of a department that treats paramedic authority as optional.
POAM’s Position: Oversight Before, During, and After the Call
POAM’s role is not to comment from the sidelines. It is to hold the line for our members and for the patients they are trained to protect. We filed the grievance that produced the arbitrator’s order. We are now pursuing enforcement of that order, and we will continue to document every incident where a Code 1 patient does not receive the care state law requires.
“Our members did not sign up to watch preventable outcomes from the sideline while a chain of command that outranks their medical judgment gets the final word,” said POAM President James Tignanelli. “Michigan law is clear, and an arbitrator has already ruled on it. Compliance is not optional, and we intend to see this order enforced, incident by incident if that is what it takes.”
Why This Matters to Every Detroit Patient
Detroit’s EMS division answers more than 160,000 medical emergency calls a year, compared to roughly 1,500 fire calls. The people running those calls are paramedics and EMS supervisors, not incidental staff. When their authority is overridden, patients bear the risk. The department does not. [ read NPR’s article ]
POAM will keep members and the public informed as enforcement of the arbitrator’s order moves forward. Any member with direct knowledge of a call where medical authority was overridden should contact their POAM representative.
This is what full-service representation means: not a statement after the fact, but oversight before, during, and after the call. As the largest law enforcement labor organization in Michigan, POAM has the standing and the resources to see this through, and we intend to use both.