Polish the Badge
Dr. Thomas Bay was one of the keynote speakers at Fire-Rescue International in Atlanta. As a cancer survivor, his main theme was to remind us as chiefs to protect both our firefighters and ourselves from the carcinogens that surround us daily. He challenged us to make sure our people were regularly cleaning their turnout gear and equipment, as well as showering and donning a change of clothes after any smoky fire or possible exposure to a potential cancer hazard.
His sub-theme, however, was that firefighters easily are the most respected group of public servants in the United States. Firefighters’ actions are trusted so universally that every day citizens afford us specific privileges, such as coming into the privacy of their homes, without question. Bay has experienced this respect first-hand, as he regularly participates in the Orange County (Calif.) Fire Authority’s ride-along program. He challenged us to “polish the badge” every day, to maintain the public trust and realize that we represent more than ourselves; we represent the collective fire service.
While this wasn’t a new realization, Bay‘s words stuck with me. During the first weeks back at work, I had two experiences that reminded me how much we are respected and how often we are called on to help.
On the way home and still in uniform, I stopped at a supermarket in a neighboring community to get some last-minute items for dinner. When leaving the store, a car stop abruptly in front of me with a man and a woman inside. Both obviously recognized my fire uniform. The man tried to speak to me through the windshield, while the lady opened the door with concern in her eyes. She explained that while driving through the parking lot, a bee had stung her husband in the arm and he was already showing signs of anaphylactic shock. She asked me if I could do anything. A quick call to dispatch and handful of ice on the affected area was all I had time to do before the medics arrived. I know these folks eventually would have gotten the needed EMS assistance, but seeing a firefighter assured them that things would be okay.
The second instance came later in the month as I attended both a 9/11 remembrance service and the dedication of the new state fire marshal‘s office in Ohio. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland addressed the crowd of approximately 500 and described how still etched in his — and the public’s — mind are the faces of firefighters at the World Trade Center on that fateful day. Despite their concerns, the firefighters saw the desperate situation of those who were trapped in the Twin Towers and they never hesitated as they climbed the stairways to guide the occupants to safety and to attempt to control the fires. Strickland concluded with a quote from Kurt Vonnegut: “There is nothing more that stands as a symbol of humanity than a fire engine.”
As Bay said, from the ordinary citizen on the street to the most senior public officials in our community, the fire service, and each of us as its ambassador, holds a special place of trust with people. How do we as chiefs set the example to teach this concept of public trust to our firefighters?
September 16th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Bob, as you clearly illustrate in your commentary, the key to building trust and training firefighters to do the same boils down to ensuring that our actions correspond with our intentions and that those intentions correspond with the expectations of the public. This is true not just when we find ourselves in the public eye, or more accurately when we think we’re under scrutiny, but all the time.
People judge our values and intentions by assessing our actions. If firefighters and other emergency service professionals turn inwards they run the risk that their actions will correspond with their intentions, but these intentions may become more and more detached from the expectations of the community’s. We can almost certainly rely on firefighters to rise above public expectations in extreme situations like those we witness on 9/11. What we must guard against is the more routine disconnects between public expectations and public service performance that arise when we rely to heavily on the good will that comes from such performances.
A recent case in a major metropolitan city on the West Coast illustrates this point. A fire crew dispatched to a medical emergency was observed assaulting a disorderly patient when he refused to comply with their instructions. The company officer was severely disciplined after security camera footage showed him kicking the patient after he fell to the floor. The videotape ensured accountability, but also guaranteed that these aweful images were burned into the public consciousness.
Training firefighters to cope with the extreme stresses of a World Trade Center disaster may well be nigh on impossible. Training them to manage the stresses associated with routine events and monitoring their welfare to ensure they use these skills wisely is essential to the health of the individuals, the organization, and its reputation and relationship with the public. This requires us to move from an occupational safety focus that intervenes to correct deficiencies to one that builds a health and wellness culture within our organizations.
Leave a Comment