The Orange County Sheriff’s Office will soon be equipped to support and augment EMS responses to emergency medical calls in Orange County. Due to some extended dispatch and response times from both paid and volunteer emergency medical services in certain areas of the county, Sheriff Arteta realized the necessity to improve EMS support to serve our residents.
Orange County deputies will implement and utilize a new emergency medical service style, “FLY-Car,” in the upcoming months. The “FLY-Car” program intends to provide basic life support care to Orange County residents until an EMS transport agency can get there. The “FLY-Car” will be assigned daily to a deputy who is trained and certified as a New York State Emergency Medical Technician. Deputies will respond to emergency medical calls and be the initial response to stabilize the patient and transfer care to an EMS transport agency when they arrive. This quicker initial care is expected to significantly increase patient survivability and lower the severity of lasting injury. In preparation to launch this program, the Sheriff’s Office applied for and was granted a New York State Basic Life Support-First Responder Agency Code on April 22nd, 2025, by the New York State Department of Health, Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and Trauma System (BEMSATS).
This code represents the agencies’ readiness to comply with all training, certifications, and protocols set forth by the State of New York Department of Health regarding patient care in an emergency setting. Developing the program required meeting several essential benchmarks, including developing new policies and procedures, acquiring an appropriate vehicle, and many hours of planning, training, and coordination.
The “FLY-Car” will primarily cover jurisdictions falling below a 10-minute dispatch time frame of EMS and is anticipated to go live in July 2025.
For more information on the services we provide to our residents please visit www.orangecountygov.com and click on the Sheriff’s Office link. To contact us please use OCNYSheriff@orangecountygov.com.
