WASHINGTON DC UNION HEADQUARTERS FOR IAFF REFUSES TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT MIDWEST CITY REPORT
A recent report titled, “Geographic Information System Emergency Services Response Capabilities Analysis Final Report” was recently posted on the Midwest City Firefighters Association social media page. The report was published by International Association of Fire Fighters, 1750 New York Avenue, N.W, Washington, DC 20006. No person of authorship was cited.
The report highlights eight “key findings” in the executive summary. One startling finding in the report states that the current organization of the MWC Fire Department leaves “approximately 25% of city roads without engine or ladder coverage.” One in four city roads are without engine or ladder coverage?
In that same finding, the study alluded to these 25% as not having a four minute response time. Further the report states: “Fire suppression resources are not deployed adequately for the arrival of an effective firefighting force (15firefighters) within 8 minutes to 90% of incidents (NFPA1710).”
I wanted to speak to the people who created this report to ask them some questions about what they had published. I called the IAFF Fire & EMS Operations/GIS Department in Washington DC to inquire into some of the details of the report.
I asked a representative of that department the name of the person or people who worked on the report published in May 2016 for Midwest City, Oklahoma. Since it was May 6th, I figured it would be very easy to get someone who knew about the study.
At first I was given a name of someone and they quickly withdrew that person. Then offered another name, I asked how to spell their name and they got a bit antsy about my inquiry and asked why I wanted to know about the study. I explained that I was doing research on the report and wanted some basic information about it.
She then told me that Thomas Breyer was the director of the Fire & EMS Operations Department and offered to transfer me to his extension. He answered the phone and I asked if he was the person who issued the report on Midwest City, Oklahoma. He said that he was in charge of those who did and that he was responsible for the publishing of the report. I then asked when they conducted the research for the report. I asked if he or his staff came to Midwest City in doing their research. He stated that he was asked to generate this report by the local union in Midwest City and wasn’t going to give any details about the report until he spoke to the president of that chapter.
Of course I had many questions that I wanted to ask about the report but wanted to get some basic details about the research, including who generated the report. The report states: “This computer-based analytical study examines predicted travel times and geographic coverage areas for emergency response units deployed from existing fire station locations in the Midwest City Fire Department’s response jurisdiction under existing and proposed scenarios.” So I wanted to know the parameters of the computer based study, the variables input into the program and the assumptions being made on operational processes calculated into the time computation.
I also wanted him to cite any report that recommended less manpower for any municipality in which they’ve ever generated a report. But Thomas Breyer wasn’t interested in answering any questions because it might violate the wishes of the local union.
In doing some research about Thomas Breyer, he has been involved in a myriad of legislative activities. A recent article by New Jersey news outlet, “Press of Atlantic City,” quoted Breyer:
“If requested by the local union president, the IAFF would perform a customized analysis for the department, Breyer said, but ultimately “the assessment of risk in determining what a community should have” is based on capital and personnel as well as historical and projected demand.
The IAFF does not recommend staffing or coverage levels either, although the National Fire Protection Association requires a minimum of four firefighters per fire suppression system, Breyer said.”
Breyer’s LinkedIn profile indicates that he graduated from Hocking Technical College with an Associates of Technical Study in 2000 and attended Xavier University from 2006 – 2008. No degree was listed but “BLA, pre-med” appears to be his major.
Not always, but often when computer generated models are deployed in such fashion, these kind of reports are done by those with more quantitative backgrounds. That seems to be lacking from his academic experience. But the real problem here is one of a lack of transparency.
The report was generated by a computer which means there are lots of variables and assumptions cooked into their models. I would guess there are some statistical models as well that would estimate traffic variables too. There isn’t any transparency to this study and that should be a problem to everyone who reads the report. The findings are being presented as “facts” without observing the data used to derive these computer generated findings.
Additionally, the Firefighters union president has been saying their data is bad. So did he present data he believes is not reliable into their computer generated models? We don’t know because the IAFF in Washington DC won’t say. Well that’s okay because we are going to do a real study, not a report, and they can take a look at this data as part of their analysis.
Unlike the IAFF report, the companies that will conduct the public safety studies should be unbiased third parties. And as such residents should know some basic things about the authors of the study, their methodology, and should not have problems getting basic information out of the authors of the study.
The truth is that this report just demonstrates how important it is to actually conduct an unbiased third party study because the IAFF study lacks transparency and is filled with biases and assumptions that have been hidden in their computer models. Also, the obvious fact is that they benefit from pushing cities and residents to pay for more staffing because the IAFF is a beneficiary of more union dues.
And let’s not forget that the IAFF has spent tens of thousands of dollars in Midwest City on political activities and signs telling residents that they are in danger. They seem to be vested in that position without much transparency of dependable analysis to back up those claims.
Thankfully the public safety studies were approved and residents should pay attention to the process of these studies, insist on unbiased studies and then be prepared to act in the best interest of our city residents in implementing the recommendations and projections of the studies.
A recent report titled, “Geographic Information System Emergency Services Response Capabilities Analysis Final Report” was recently posted on the Midwest City Firefighters Association social media page. The report was published by International Association of Fire Fighters, 1750 New York Avenue, N.W, Washington, DC 20006. No person of authorship was cited.
The report highlights eight “key findings” in the executive summary. One startling finding in the report states that the current organization of the MWC Fire Department leaves “approximately 25% of city roads without engine or ladder coverage.” One in four city roads are without engine or ladder coverage?
In that same finding, the study alluded to these 25% as not having a four minute response time. Further the report states: “Fire suppression resources are not deployed adequately for the arrival of an effective firefighting force (15firefighters) within 8 minutes to 90% of incidents (NFPA1710).”
I wanted to speak to the people who created this report to ask them some questions about what they had published. I called the IAFF Fire & EMS Operations/GIS Department in Washington DC to inquire into some of the details of the report.
I asked a representative of that department the name of the person or people who worked on the report published in May 2016 for Midwest City, Oklahoma. Since it was May 6th, I figured it would be very easy to get someone who knew about the study.
At first I was given a name of someone and they quickly withdrew that person. Then offered another name, I asked how to spell their name and they got a bit antsy about my inquiry and asked why I wanted to know about the study. I explained that I was doing research on the report and wanted some basic information about it.
She then told me that Thomas Breyer was the director of the Fire & EMS Operations Department and offered to transfer me to his extension. He answered the phone and I asked if he was the person who issued the report on Midwest City, Oklahoma. He said that he was in charge of those who did and that he was responsible for the publishing of the report. I then asked when they conducted the research for the report. I asked if he or his staff came to Midwest City in doing their research. He stated that he was asked to generate this report by the local union in Midwest City and wasn’t going to give any details about the report until he spoke to the president of that chapter.
Of course I had many questions that I wanted to ask about the report but wanted to get some basic details about the research, including who generated the report. The report states: “This computer-based analytical study examines predicted travel times and geographic coverage areas for emergency response units deployed from existing fire station locations in the Midwest City Fire Department’s response jurisdiction under existing and proposed scenarios.” So I wanted to know the parameters of the computer based study, the variables input into the program and the assumptions being made on operational processes calculated into the time computation.
I also wanted him to cite any report that recommended less manpower for any municipality in which they’ve ever generated a report. But Thomas Breyer wasn’t interested in answering any questions because it might violate the wishes of the local union.
In doing some research about Thomas Breyer, he has been involved in a myriad of legislative activities. A recent article by New Jersey news outlet, “Press of Atlantic City,” quoted Breyer:
“If requested by the local union president, the IAFF would perform a customized analysis for the department, Breyer said, but ultimately “the assessment of risk in determining what a community should have” is based on capital and personnel as well as historical and projected demand.
The IAFF does not recommend staffing or coverage levels either, although the National Fire Protection Association requires a minimum of four firefighters per fire suppression system, Breyer said.”
Breyer’s LinkedIn profile indicates that he graduated from Hocking Technical College with an Associates of Technical Study in 2000 and attended Xavier University from 2006 – 2008. No degree was listed but “BLA, pre-med” appears to be his major.
Not always, but often when computer generated models are deployed in such fashion, these kind of reports are done by those with more quantitative backgrounds. That seems to be lacking from his academic experience. But the real problem here is one of a lack of transparency.
The report was generated by a computer which means there are lots of variables and assumptions cooked into their models. I would guess there are some statistical models as well that would estimate traffic variables too. There isn’t any transparency to this study and that should be a problem to everyone who reads the report. The findings are being presented as “facts” without observing the data used to derive these computer generated findings.
Additionally, the Firefighters union president has been saying their data is bad. So did he present data he believes is not reliable into their computer generated models? We don’t know because the IAFF in Washington DC won’t say. Well that’s okay because we are going to do a real study, not a report, and they can take a look at this data as part of their analysis.
Unlike the IAFF report, the companies that will conduct the public safety studies should be unbiased third parties. And as such residents should know some basic things about the authors of the study, their methodology, and should not have problems getting basic information out of the authors of the study.
The truth is that this report just demonstrates how important it is to actually conduct an unbiased third party study because the IAFF study lacks transparency and is filled with biases and assumptions that have been hidden in their computer models. Also, the obvious fact is that they benefit from pushing cities and residents to pay for more staffing because the IAFF is a beneficiary of more union dues.
And let’s not forget that the IAFF has spent tens of thousands of dollars in Midwest City on political activities and signs telling residents that they are in danger. They seem to be vested in that position without much transparency of dependable analysis to back up those claims.
Thankfully the public safety studies were approved and residents should pay attention to the process of these studies, insist on unbiased studies and then be prepared to act in the best interest of our city residents in implementing the recommendations and projections of the studies.
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