Detroit’s mayor and city council recently made Eric Jones the next fire commissioner. He comes to the position with a purely law enforcement and administrative background.
Commissioner Jones has impressive qualifications. He has over 25 years as a law enforcement officer in Detroit. During his time as a police officer, he obtained a law degree and passed the bar exam. He has deep professional and personal ties to the community. His son is a Detroit firefighter.
He has been the top administrator in a city department. But he’s never been a firefighter.
I am guessing I am not the only one who wonders how this decision will be received by rank-and-file firefighters. It reopens questions of the value of fire service experience versus administrative experience when leading a department.
It also opens questions about the relationship between police and fire departments.
Why the disconnect?
Historically, there have always been rivalries between police officers and firefighters. Mostly these rivalries are good-natured, but sometimes not so much.
There are the stories of public altercations and police officers arresting firefighters at emergency scenes. And then there was the lack of communication and coordination between police and fire in New York City on 9/11, a division caused by many years of bad blood between the two departments.
What has caused these conflicts and disconnects? Police and fire departments may support significantly different organizational cultures, but essentially they serve the same mission: to safeguard the community in crisis and prevent harm.
But the differences are real. Historically, police officers are armed and the ones who deal exclusively with crime and violence. Firefighters are not armed, and their focus has traditionally been dangers caused by hazardous conditions rather than people.
Over the years, these lines have been blurred in many ways. Firefighters often find themselves dealing with law enforcement issues, whether it is in responding to emergency medical calls or investigating suspicious fires. Law enforcement officers must often take command of incidents that go far beyond just criminal activity and encroach on what has typically been the domain of fire departments.
Thin purple line
These blurred lines of responsibility and authority have caused tension in some agencies. Firefighters complain that police officers are overstepping their authority at scenes. Police officers complain that firefighters get in the way rather than support their efforts.
Firefighters complain that police get more money. Police officers complain that firefighters always want to be the good guys and paint cops as the bad guys.
Sometimes disagreements are minimal — low-level gossip or fleeting resentments. But sometimes these conflicts translate into organizational cultures that put two agencies that should be supporting one another in opposite camps.
You can see this play out on MVC scenes where firefighters’ goal of restricting traffic for safety is at cross purposes with police officers’ desire to keep traffic moving. You can add to this, scenes where police are first to arrive at a structure fire and attempt search and rescue or where firefighters deal with EMS patients who become aggressive.
Having police and fire departments perceive one another as enemies or even competitors does not serve anyone’s needs. What can a fire chief do to improve relationships and collaboration between these two entities?
Common ground
When I was a firefighter, my department had generally very good relationships with the city police department. Any individual differences were just that and did not translate into organizational conflict.
What factors contributed to this good relationship? Without a doubt, one factor was that in our city, police and fire shared a common localized pension system. Our pension was administered by an equal number of elected representatives from the police and fire departments.
The pension board allowed police and fire to work together on an issue that was of great common interest to both groups. It was also an issue outside of each agency’s usual locus of control.
The pension board was collaborative, friendly and completely on the same side of the common issue. And since all board members were accessible to all pension members, it was common for a firefighter to call up one of the police representatives with a question and vice versa.
Cross-training is another way that police and fire can better appreciate and support each other’s essential roles. For example, some fire departments have created teams of SWAT medics to directly support police intervention. Likewise, some police departments have trained members to do first-response at hazardous materials incidents.
Top down
Collaborative scenario planning is another way for police and fire to be on the same page when such coordination is most needed, which may be the best opportunity for volunteer or combination departments to work with police.
This type of planning often happens at the top levels of each department and its success or failure depends on personal commitment among individuals in those positions.
And this brings up the most important factor that contributes to good relations between any two agencies: commitment from the top down that such cooperation is not just nice to do, but essential to be able to jointly achieve the core mission that the organizations share.
This commitment must be expressed not just in official statements, but in all everyday activities: refraining from gossip, speaking well of the other, seeking out ways to connect face-to-face, supporting the other in the media and in public gatherings.
This assumption of support does not mean that police and fire departments can never be critical of each other.
Quite the opposite: when a relationship of trust is assumed, then people can be honest, critical evaluators of the other when such diversity of opinion is most needed. But this kind of disagreement should always be done in a way that is respectful and not based in self-interest.
Fire and police departments ultimately do different aspects of the same larger job of keeping the community safe. The more these agencies understand one another and practice collaboration, the better that mission will be achieved and the safer everyone will be.
