The Safety Gap: Replacing Old Equipment in the Fire and Emergency Services

by Kenton Pattie

NEEDA Executive Director

At the NEEDA convention in Las Vegas (January 1998) George Sztykiel, Chairman of the Board of Spartan Motors proposed a national campaign to help the fire and emergency services replace old and ineffective equipment with the goal to improve safety.

Any survey on the status of apparatus and equipment must be done professionally with the focus on developing credible results. These results must stand the test of scrutiny from the General Accounting Office (GAO) or any other auditing or investigative agency.

We believe a Request for Proposals should be issued to qualified research organizations to ask them what would be needed to ensure the indisputable integrity of this project. One element they should be asked to review is the viability of a trade publication survey as part of the data gathering.

We recognize that money is a huge problem. But whether money is spent or not, the project needs to be done correctly.

I call your attention to The Washington Post story titled *Lack of Tech Workers Disputed; Flaws Weaken Reports Claiming Shortage, GAO Critique Says* A2 Monday March 23, 1998 National News section.

In this story, the General Accounting Office disputed the technology *worker gap* which was documented by the Commerce Department and the Information Technology Association of American (ITAA). In my opinion, the attack of the GAO dooms the ITAA*s proposal for letting more immigrants into the United States to meet the shortfall in tech workers.

Similarly, the claim that there is a safety gap due to old equipment would be doomed if it does not stand up to a rigorous cross examination. The Post story should be enough to emphasize to everyone in FAMA and our industry that whatever we do we should do it right, cut no corners, and guarantee that the result is unassailable. If not, it will be a colossal and embarrassing waste of time and resources.

The Post says GAO ". . .criticized the Information Technology Association of America. . .for reports that raised alarms about a 'severe shortage' of computer workers based on job vacancies in a sample of companies. The GAO questioned 'the reliability of ITAA's survey findings,' saying they were not supported by sufficient data."

Later the Post says GAO "found unconvincing two ITAA surveys purporting to show, based on projections from a small sample of companies, that there were 190,000 unfilled information technology jobs in 1996 and 346,000 such vacancies last year. The response rates of 14% in the first survey and 36% in the second were too far below a necessary 75 percent response rate to make valid generalizations, the GAO said."

All it would take is one state legislature or one city council to investigate and attack the data we present and the word would spread among elected decision-makers that one can't trust the claims of a "safety gap" in the fire and emergency services.

After ten years working in the US Senate and over twenty years working on this type of issue for various associations, I can report to you that what happened to the ITAA data this week is a frequent occurrence here. The opposition will find a flaw in the proponents* case and that flaw will be used to destroy or damage the proponent.

NEEDA would not want to provide its members or our customers in the fire and emergency services with any information which could be disputed or refuted.

In the case of the technology-worker-shortage, it has been well-publicized in recent years. But, failure to document the shortage properly will now cost the ITAA and its members many months, maybe years, of delay.

In the case of emergency equipment, many in the industry readily agree there is a lot of old equipment in field use.

But, at what point does *old* equal unsafe, inefficient, or ineffective? How much of *old* should be replaced and at what cost? Would the increase in safety and quality of emergency services gained by newer equipment justify the investment of taxpayer funds? Could there be a positive return on investment and if so how much? How do we measure the amount of equipment that is no longer sufficient to meet the safety needs of the community?

An independent, unimpeachable authority must answer these questions using a process that will pass muster with critics like the GAO. It must be done right.

Once the answers are published, the news media and anyone in the fire and emergency services can share the information with decision-makers.

Therefore, NEEDA strongly urges that any action taken provides us all with credible, defensible data which will convince decision-makers to act while withstanding the test of critics.

The competition is intense for public support among many worthwhile goals. This is a worthwhile goal. Documented correctly we can reach this goal. But, to be prepared to win we must raise a substantial investment for research funds and we must pursue the highest standards of data acquisition.