A Miami-Dade firefighter is no longer with the department after being accused of inappropriate conduct involving a student participating in a ride-along program, according to a spokesperson for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson told NBC6 the allegations stem from an incident in late January. The firefighter is accused of sending inappropriate text messages to a high school student who was taking part in an EMS ride-along program. According to the department spokesperson, the messages reportedly made the student uncomfortable and prompted the investigation.<\/p>\n
The firefighter has been identified as Guillermo Halphen, who was assigned to Fire Station 70 in southwest Miami-Dade and had been in the department for 20 years.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson said Halphen resigned on March 6 as the department was moving forward with plans to fire him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a statement, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue emphasized a zero-tolerance stance on such behavior, stating:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no circumstances under which this type of behavior is acceptable. Upon becoming aware of this matter, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue acted swiftly and decisively to remove the individual from duty. Following a comprehensive internal investigation, the individual is no longer employed by the Department. Any employee who engages in conduct that violates the trust placed in our Department will be held accountable and subject to termination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just days after Halphen\u2019s resignation, the department\u2019s fire chief issued a memo to employees reinforcing expectations for professionalism. The memo, which was obtained by NBC6, reminded staff that all interactions with ride-along participants, cadets, and students must remain respectful and in compliance with department policy, adding that any conduct falling short of those standards is unacceptable.<\/p>\n
The Metro-Dade Firefighters Union, Local 1403, said it could not comment on the specifics of the case but released a statement saying:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hold our members to the highest standards as trusted public servants, and these allegations fall well below those expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this time, there does not appear to be any criminal investigation related to the case.<\/p>\n
When contacted, Halphen referred questions to his attorney, who declined to comment, citing respect for those involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Miami-Dade firefighter is no longer with the department after being accused of inappropriate conduct involving a student…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124,2033],"class_list":{"0":"post-215583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-miami","9":"tag-miami-headlines","10":"tag-miami-news","11":"tag-only-on-6"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}