How can we better the relationship between chasers and public services?

[Shawn Gossman]

Hey everyone,

So in the recent years, especially very recently, there has been many issues with storm chasers and emergency services like emergency management, law enforcement and so on. The issues have been in relation to blocking the roadways, trespass on private property and even property damage. The most common result are storm chasers defending themselves and then emergency services defending their arguments against storm chasers and how they conduct their methods.

So....

Why don't we try a new approach? Why don't we discuss methods and ways to better our relationships with emergency services and allow them to realize how important we actually are in relation to severe weather? I mean we all will not get along until we step up and do something productive and in a coordinated effort with one and other and entity, right?

What are your thoughts, folks?

 

[rdale]

I think you are exaggerating based on a few high-profile reports, I hardly believe "many" issues are occurring.

 

[Andrea Griffa]

In my experience what I understood is that the people and law enforcement have a great respect toward the stormchase community; I've been stopped some times in the past years by police along the highways and interstates, even just for normal controls, and I have to admitt they have a very high consideration.

I think we just have to make up our mind a little more and drive with more responsability under storms, as lately I've seen too many chasers going too fast and overall park in horrible ways. ONE more thing: we shoud be able to drive without camera on the hand and use window supports.
That done, we could be even more loved than now.

 

[WillTownsWx]

In response to Rdale, Maybe not many issues have occured. The issue that occured on the April 14th high risk day was enough to send this all into debate. What happened in Kansas was not tolerable and if your like me you would say, "Storm Chasers would never block the road from EM". High up members of the government in Kansas are permanantly distraught on what happened. Say things such as Chasers are "idiots" and such like that. The problem lies with two things Miscategorization and Reckless chasers, the latter of which isnt as big of an issue. I think the problem is Kansas believes any average Joe photographing a Tornado is a chaser and this is something ive noticed while chasing several times. It seems like when theres a Tornado any random guy driving on the road decideds to pull over and use there smart phones to capture the event. Ive seen it several times. Not only random people but storm photographers seem to be the worst about pulling over on interstates and such. The latter of which I havent personally ever seen but I have seen the attitude before is this sense that chasers are more important then EM and we have the right to intercept that Tornado no matter whats in our way. A sense that were above the "law" as it will.

The solution to this is Blacklist wreckless chasers such as unfollowing them on twitter and encouraging others to do the same. Any chaser you see who expresses discontent to adhering to the law, blacklist em'. As for miscategorzation of Storm Photographers and Storm chasers we cant stop that. But we can mentor those who dont realize what there doing. If you see someone blocking a road tell them to move. Explain to them that its giving us a bad name and blocking the road is a Hazard to EM. Maybe they will be understanding and apologize or maybe they didnt realize what they were doing is a mistake. The problem here is no one wants to go out of the way to solve the problem by mentoring younger chasers, confronting the problem when they see it, and establishing a general procedure/code of conduct for us to follow. Maybe there needs to be an organization like the American Meteorological Association but something like American Chaser Association. Something that can recognize the chasers who practice good chasing habits.

 

[Karen St John]

Talk. Talk. Talk some more. Keep talking with emergency managers, LEOs, & al.

Listen a little bit, too.

Seriously, dialogue works things out.

 

[Rob H]

Pretty much exactly what Karen said. All the ones I've talked with (even Brad Homman from the 4/14 KS incident) have been interested in building relationships and have been kind and respectful. I'm all for blacklisting reckless chasers, but when some of them have 100,000 likes on Facebook, they're not going to care if a small portion of a community stops giving them attention.

 

[Jesse Risley]

I'll echo what Rob said earlier in this thread. While there have been a few high profile cases where chasers have been engaged in a dispute with law enforcement, including an arrest or two, I have yet to see evidence that there is a widespread problem. Most of my interactions with LEOs have been positive, and the same is usually said of other chasers too.