Big Brother: 60 Years Later

Monday, May 24th, 2010

by Robert Tutterow

In 1949, George Orwell’s infamous book 1984 was published. The novel was based on a totalitarian state where the ruling party had total power over the governed. One of the key characters of that novel was “Big Brother”, the dictator of Oceania. The society described in Orwell’s book is one that is under constant surveillance by the authorities. It is from this infamous book that the phrase “Big Brother is watching you” originated.

Sixty years later an interesting parallel has developed. While our society has not exactly evolved into a totalitarian state with constant surveillance by Big Brother, we have evolved into a society where, to a significant degree, “we” have each other under surveillance. Foremost in the area of monitoring and data capture is the popularity of security cameras. When we drive into the parking lot or walk through the door of a business, there is a good chance that our actions are being captured by video cameras. Traffic monitoring cameras are also very common. Most urban areas now have traffic monitoring cameras mounted at major intersections and along multi-lane traffic arteries.

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Cab “Stuff”

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

by Robert Tutterow

A considerable amount has been spoken and written about seat belt usage and the lack thereof. However, loose bodies inside the cab of a fire apparatus in the midst of a collision or rollover are only part of the problem. All the other “stuff” inside the cab will become projectiles unless they are securely fastened.

Maybe you have seen the graphic footage from a video camera mounted inside a cab during a rollover at one of the crash test facilities. The good folks at CAPE (Center for Advanced Product Evaluation), a brand of IMMI (Indiana Mills and Manufacturing, Inc.), just outside of Indianapolis have made such videos for fire apparatus cabs. One of the most “wow” moments if viewing their videos is to watch the unbelted firefighter slam against the belted firefighter. It’s the body blow blitzing linebackers can only dream about.
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Unbelievable! Or is it?

Monday, November 5th, 2007

By Robert Tutterow
Health & Safety Officer
Charlotte Fire Department

Through May of this year, unofficially, this country has lost 43 firefighters in the line of duty. 16 of these firefighters lost their lives responding to calls while 8 lost their lives at the scene of an incident (excluding medical LODDs). Heart attacks and strokes aside, more than twice as many firefighters have lost their live responding to incidents than actually working at the incidents! That’s UNBELIEVABLE–OR IS IT? It’s certainly absurd and totally unacceptable. To the general public, that statistic would probably be very surprising because they think we get killed bringing people out of burning structures. At least that’s what we tell them.
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