Public safety is too expensive?

Hmph. I saw another news item today that highlights the fact that some things in the emergency response system in Finland are just broken. Badly. There has recently been discussion around at least three things that need fixing.

First, for the past months there’s been talk of how badly the new centralized emergency centers are operating with severe personnel issues and all that goes along with those – what this ends up is bad response times even in normal situations. For example in July, 15% of the callers had to hold between half a minute and two minutes before the emergency number answered. Two minutes is not a nice time to be on hold when somebody’s life is at stake. Two minutes or even a minute is the difference between life and death in many cases.

Then there was the ambulance helicopter debacle, with the choppers being grounded for a while during financial crisis of the operating company. This has come to be a semi-annual occurance it seems, with some sort of financial crisis popping up every now and then.

And now the latest piece of news has to do with the wireless network (VIRVE) dedicated for authorities; a separate, secure communications channel that is not used to its full extent because it’s too expensive.

All this just begs the question how highly do we value life in this country. If basic emergency services experience breakdowns during normal times, how well can we expect them to work when they’re really needed, in times of crisis? If we don’t have enough trained people answering phones in the emergency call centers, it doesn’t take a big accident for the system to grind to a complete halt.

All three things I mentioned – emergency call centers, medical choppers, wireless networks for authorities – should be fully financed, operated and guaranteed by the government in one form or another. Not to mention that first responders like police and firemen are a) inadequate in numbers and b) paid poorly. And yet, even with the poor salaries, fire & police departments complain they can’t afford to hire more people.

Emergency services is one place where I would gladly have my tax dollars – or euros – be used. But no. I’ve often wondered whether national budget democracy has ever been tried – a process where each citizen could decide what even a part (like maybe 10%) of his or her tax money would be spent on.