October 2004

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Guest Commentary

Bruce Philpott, former Pasadena, CA, chief of police, retired in 1991 after 28 years of service. He can be reached by email at logicpoint@aol.com. Upon request, he said he will make the entire document available at no charge. Mr. Philpott says fire chiefs have described it as a “one-of-a-kind document” containing facts that have never before been presented in such a compelling and illustrative way. This is a must read for city managers who work for suburban, urban and metropolitan cities. The California League of Cities has invited Mr. Philpott to present concepts of public safety reform during a workshop at the annual conference of city managers scheduled in early February in Monterey.

Does the idea of cost recovery of millions of dollars per year plus the huge enhancement of safety services appeal to you? If it does, then you may want to keep reading. Believe it or not, the above concept starts and ends with a restructuring of the Fire Department.

Reforms stem from a four-year research and development project. In spearheading this project, I have drawn from my experience as a retired police chief from Pasadena. In three decades of service, I have worked with and managed some aspects of fire operations. Finding the structure and culture of the fire service to be an anomaly in local government, I assembled numerous fire chiefs as well as rank-and-file firefighters from Northern and Southern California to participate in brain-storming sessions about how the fire service could be restructured to serve communities more efficiently. The results produced a 22-page document entitled, “To Protect & Save.”

Findings include four new models for fire service that:

• Eliminate the traditional 24-hour shift where leisure and sleep account for 66%, and on weekends, up to 90%, of their on-duty time.

• Convert half of the engine companies to two-person patrol rigs that carry 300 gallons of water and can manage well over 90% of the medical and fire/rescue calls in their geographic areas of responsibility. While on patrol, they also provide a variety of value added services such as graffiti and road hazard removal, field inspections, smoke detector installations, check on elderly, etc.

• Increase response to major disasters such as earthquakes by adding 40% more public safety personnel resources to the community in the form of an effective fire auxiliary or reserve force.

• Adopt a military model of service, hiring young men and women in the community to serve a four-year contract that pays them a $50,000 bonus at the end of their service.

All of this while maintaining or reducing response times.

The research also debunks some commonly held beliefs associated with fire-fighting, such as high fatality rates in the workplace. Rather than just listing the facts, this report creates a fictional city and characters. It profiles a typical shift of a firefighter. It dares to tread on a sector of public employment that has a can-do-no-wrong reputation, especially since 9-11.