CPSE Supplement
CPSE Supplement
badge of honor rather than a continuous process of improvement. Decals and plaques may be nice, but the fruit of the
process is in maintaining good practices, identifying areas
of improvement, and measuring outputs to ensure long-term
improvement.
Our department’s leadership believes in accreditation.
We’ve watched it complement our strategies to build fire
stations, hire more firefighters, and operate more profession-
ally. While all that evidence is important to supporting the
accreditation model, the real proof appeared to me during a
recent meeting involving a cross section of our department,
including some of our newest firefighters. There, in that meet-
ing, those firefighters suggested that they and the rest of the
firefighters needed to understand the accreditation model bet-
ter. They contended that upcoming attrition and retirements
might place our department in a vulnerable state without
some succession planning in the accreditation process. You
can imagine the satisfaction many of our chief officers felt
hearing those words. Although they didn’t understand the
intricacies of the standard of cover, strategic plan, self-assess-
ment process, or risk assessment, those firefighters knew that
the accreditation process was vital for our success.
Making the self-assessment process and the entire accreditation model part of your department’s DNA is a wise investment in time and effort. The time, effort, and energy placed in
the process will produce an inclusive culture and dividends
for decades to come.
TOM JENKINS, CFO, CEMSO, has served as chief of
the Rogers (AR) Fire Department since 2009. He has a
bachelor’s degree in fire protection and safety engineering
from Oklahoma State University and a master’s degree in
public administration from the University of Oklahoma. He
is a 2006 graduate of the Executive Fire Officer Program
at the National Fire Academy and both a Chief Fire Officer
and Chief EMS Officer Designee from the Commission on
Professional Credentialing. He is the current president of the International
Association of Fire Chiefs.
Verification and Validation:
How Self-Assessment Promotes
Positive Transformation
BY ERNST R. PIERCY, CFO
THE FIRE SERVICE IS GOING through a transformational phase in our history. Are you prepared
to meet the challenges of tomorrow? I
have the honor of traveling extensively
on behalf of the Commission on Fire
Accreditation International (CFAI) and
the Center for Public Safety Excellence
(CPSE) and would like to
discuss the value added
with the self-assessment process.
During my career,
I have seen many
attempts to articulate
to our municipal leaders
exactly what our value
is in the community.
Gone are the days where
we can make the case
that buildings will burn
or lives will be lost if the
fire service is not there
to protect the communi-
ty. Although conceptu-
ally the argument makes
sense, it is difficult to measure success
using emotions when we should be
using actualities to justify resources
or services within our programs. The
CFAI self-assessment process requires
an agency to use quantifiable data to
make fact-based decisions regarding
the delivery of emergency services to
the community. If we had unlimited
resources, we could do anything; but
since we do not, how do we validate the
service level objectives in our communi-
ty? What does the community expect?
Have we asked?
The self-assessment model consists
of 252 performance indicators, of which
86 are core competencies or
“must-meet” areas. A con-
temporary fire and emer-
gency services agency will
be challenged on its meth-
odology and conclusions
to ensure they are credible.
The Oxford Dictionary
defines credibility as “the
quality of being trusted and
believed in.” In other words,
how can we be sure that our
citizens believe that we are
excellent stewards of their
monies? The answer lies in
the model. While there is
no doubt that emergency
response performance is
