Fire Marshal Jonathan Mercurio was interviewed about his career in law enforcement. He started as a firefighter for the FDNY for 11 years before becoming a Fire Marshal, requiring 5 years of experience as a firefighter. As a Fire Marshal, his duties included investigating the causes and origins of fires, educating the public about fire safety, and inspecting buildings. After 34 total years with the FDNY, including 23 years as a Fire Marshal, he recently retired due to health issues from his time as a firefighter. A typical day involves being assigned cases by a supervisor and investigating fire scenes with a partner to determine the cause of fires. The job has rewarding and stressful aspects, and some Fire Marshals experience post

1. Police Interview
Dennis Huang
CRJ 22 Introduction to Policing
Jonelle Knox

2. Interviewing law enforcement officers helps those who want to explore the criminal justice
field to understand the everyday life that law enforcement officers encounter daily. I interviewed
FDNY Fire Marshal Jonathan Mercurio.
Fire Marshals in the FDNY are sworn in law enforcement officers, they are usually
experienced firefighters beforehand. Before becoming a Fire Marshal, one needs to be a fire
fighter for at least 5 years then can be qualified to take the fire marshal civil service examination.
Their duties include finding the causes and origins of a fire, helping the community with ways to
prevent another fire from starting, speak in schools, community fairs, and senior centers about
the dangers of fire. They would also have annual visits to colleges/universities dorm rooms to
check on hazardous materials that may ignite or cause a fire.
I have known Fire Marshal Mercurio since last summer, where I was a summer intern
with the FDNY Fire Marshals Office. During my internship, I had gotten several opportunities to
ride along with Fire Marshals and investigate fire scenes. This helped me understand fire
investigations, how to reconstruct a scene, finding the cause and origin of how a fire started,
interviewing witnesses, video surveillance, home visits, and talking to juveniles about fire
prevention.
When interviewing Fire Marshal Mercurio, he had many years of experience in the law
enforcement field. Mercurio started his first job as a liquor salesman part time and full time as
the owner of a car service company. He later went into the NYPD as a Transit Police Officer for
1 year and then went to become a firefighter for FDNY. He had worked as a firefighter for 11
years and wanted to advance his career within FDNY. If he didn’t make it as a Fire Marshal, he
would work for Hazmat, which he was exploring that division within firefighting. He had

3. worked in FDNY for 34 years in total, 23 years as a Fire Marshal and 11 years as a firefighter.
Last week was his retirement due to health reasons from scenes when he went to as a firefighter.
In a daily routine for Fire Marshals, they usually start out their day by checking in with
their Supervising Fire Marshal for any investigations/fire scenes/leftover scenes; the supervisor
then assigns the Fire Marshal a case and pair them up with a partner. During an investigation of a
fire scene, they usually discover that most fires are started due to electrical wiring. A few
instances people may intentionally set places on fire due to financial problems. Fire Marshal
Mercurio had lots of memorable moments and hardships. His most favorite aspect in the job is to
assist the community, and find out how a fire started. His least favorite aspect in the job is
learning that deaths and injuries may occur in fires. There are sometimes stress as Fire Marshals,
these stress are due to the rotating schedules, having different jurisdictions with other law
enforcement agencies such as Port Authority and the Airport. Sometimes Fire Marshals go
through post traumatic stress syndrome; Post traumatic stress syndrome is “caused by stressful
events, such as vehicle accidents, 9/11, and sexual assaults.” (NHS Choices) Fire Marshal
Prior training is required before anyone can be a Fire Marshal. Trainings are usually at
Randall’s Island, Citywide Command Center, and Fort Totten. As a Fire Marshal there are
additional training yearly, however they aren’t required but it is a great opportunity to hone the
skills of law enforcement. Some of the trainings include Detective force, Bomb Squad and FBI
Terrorism Training. Fire Marshals needs to be on guard constantly, and encounter the element of
surprise; they must be on guard because of what might happen to bad guys. Mercurio stated that
“bad guys are a threat to law enforcement”.

4. Mercurio’s favorite moment on the job consists of a case where an argument between club
owners and a group of gang members threw Molotov cocktails as the bar and the owners. The
argument started because the owners didn’t the gang members into the bar. It took 3 years to ID
the gang members, however a few years later Mercurio spotted one of the gang members waiting
at a bus stop with his girlfriend. Later the Bronx court ruled an acquittal on the gang members;
Mercurio stated that the “Bronx jury usually lean on acquittal, and investigations may not work
all the time”, this was his least favorite moment finding out the gang members were acquitted.
As a law enforcement officer, there are usually life threatening situations that officers will
encounter in their career. Mercurio faced two life threatening situations in his whole career, as a
firefighter he had responded to 9/11, and as a Fire Marshal he chased a arsonist who had a gun
on him. However Mercurio doesn’t think about it as a life threatening situation, these are typical
law enforcement duties.
I had almost closed out the interview as I left him with one last question about police
brutality and stop and frisk laws. Mercurio stated that the stop and frisk laws work however in
some instances, police officers can be overzealous towards a scenario, it is not necessary to use
frisk as a technique. Mercurio also stated that the media is hyping about stop and frisk and police
brutality. He is especially angry towards the protesters in Ferguson, because the protesters were
citizens of Ferguson who didn’t have any affiliation with the incident with Michael Brown. They
took their frustration towards the city and created fires in retail stores, buildings, etc.
Overall, I enjoyed interviewing a law enforcement officer because it made me realize that
law enforcement officers have a passionate about helping the community, and can sometimes
face hardships and difficult scenarios. I agree with Mercurio that the media have portrayed
officers as being bad, however they usually jump to conclusion and not report the whole story of

5. what happened from the beginning to the end of the incident. Also TV shows like Law and
Order, CSI, and Bones have portrayed officers investigating in 24 hours. In most cases officers
do not come catch the suspects in 24 hours, usually it happens weeks, months or many years.
Fire Marshal Mercurio Email: fjmerc241@msn.com