The TSO Travels to Texas

Rob Boe helped EMS, fire, and police responders  work on
their safety briefings in Georgetown, Texas.

I recently traveled to Texas on behalf of the Training Safety Officer (TSO) program. The Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool (TMLIRP) hosted classes for their EMS, fire, and police membership at six locations around the state. The classes included a group project where the responders drafted and presented safety briefings to the class.

The safety briefing is core to the TSO program, as it lays out the training session’s safety controls, the EMS plan, required protective equipment, and outlines both acceptable and off-script behavior. The briefing also has a preventive effect on reducing training injuries and accidents since it requires thinking thoroughly through how to keep each trainee safe.

Using a checklist created by League of Minnesota Cities staff to draft their briefings, the attendees took the class to a high level and quickly volunteered to present to the class. A few expanded their briefings to include post-training safety points, including the clean-up to reduce lead exposure after being on the shooting range and many of elements of the firefighter cancer awareness program following live burns. There was some friendly “one-upmanship” as succeeding presentations built on the previous briefings, and a few responders even presented without using any notes.  

I thank the TMLIRP for their hospitality and for the opportunity to work with their membership.

If your department is interested in hosting a regional Train Safety Officer class, please contact me at (651) 281-1239 or rboe@lmc.org.

Up next: A Guest Blog by Loss Control Representative Liz Tadsse

Stay safe,
Rob