If you’re like anyone in the fire service who reads the press about members of our profession who have gone crossways with legal issues, city policies, moral-turpitude issues or financial miss-dealings and your response to reading such offends your moral compass, you aren’t alone.

Across this country, not a day goes by that we can’t read about someone in the fire service profession that has miss-stepped, causing a reactionary response by the local jurisdiction in handling the matter.

On March 31, when I wrote this article, I found online with little effort 28 articles exposing the misdeeds of our fellow brethren. From sexual deviation to drinking on duty to fighting in the stations, the public gets the dirty details of each event in news stories that include the name of the fire department where the member is, or was, employed.

The fire service, through all its noble causes and deeds, tries to employ upstanding, law-abiding people to serve our communities. People are not machines; people have feelings—complex emotional synapses that drive their actions. Most of those who serve in the fire profession are well-balanced, moral, righteous folks who do the right things for their communities and families.

Yet, we all know of a few people engaged in the fire profession who have crossed the line and acted poorly or unlawfully, thus causing the news wires, internet and YouTube to broadcast these unfortunate events worldwide.

Well, even the employees and members themselves post their misdeeds on YouTube.

As the leader at any level of the organization, you know the potential damage these misdeeds will cause to the fire department, municipality or community. As a fire chief, you know that these misdeeds will create an enormous amount of work to react to, respond to, rebuild from and prevent in the future.

From personnel matters, financial dealings and political challenges to operational miss steps, today’s leaders must be sure their organizations are prepared for and can quickly respond to organizational challenges that have or will be made known to both the internal membership or external constituents and peers.
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Attend Responding to Organizational Disasters, Wednesday, August 13 at 9:45 am at FRI. Chief S. Jeff Piechura, Northwest Fire District Tucson, Ariz., will present this session with Chief Mark Gaillard, Goodyear, Ariz.

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