I am told that 70% of all fire fighters are volunteer positions. That volunteers can be trained to do rescues from burning buildings.
Perhaps the detective should be just a detective, and the fire captain just a fire captain. But maybe the ticket writer could learn to be a firefighter too. For the bulk of the traffic cops, ticket writers, beat cops, train them to hold a hose and fight fires. Many officers are already trained in emergency medicine. And although I understand the law enforcement job well, I cant get over thinking that firemen spend most of their time sleeping and joking with their co-workers and only fight fires once in a blue moon. Plus the era of a fat out of shape donut eating cop would be over.
A few years ago Homeland Security combined the Customs Inspector job with the Immigration Officer Position and called it a CBPO. The officer must know customs law, entry processing, immigration law and processing, terrorist interdiction, WMD detection and security. Previously four different positions, now just one job title.