While the fire and emergency services community often claims that it possesses “all-hazards” response capabilities, the ability to actually respond to all hazards is questionable. While fire and emergency services will deploy to all hazards, the ability to maintain proficiency across disciplines, including training, staffing, and equipping, is a herculean task. If the response community is truly honest, we do not possess the capability or capacity to provide levels of service that the community envisions. In order to meet their expectations, communities need to fully support the mission requirements. This means increasing taxes or other forms of revenue and providing the resources needed to meet the assigned mission. This lack of awareness by community members falls, to a great extent, on the fire and emergency services community. We have consistently claimed that we can meet the expectations of the community and have not communicated our limitations effectively. It is time to have a conversation about what we can and can not do, what is actually needed in the community, and identify partners who can meet gaps that we have. It is also time to have a discussion with the community and truly examine what it costs to have the level of service that they envision and allow them to determine what that level of service is and what they are willing to support. If they are unwilling to support specific missions, then they need to understand that those missions will not be fulfilled.

For some communities and for some agencies, these will be hard discussions to have. But, it is better to establish the expectations and limitations early so that alternatives may be identified and so that community members and decision-makers can determine what level of risk that they are willing to accept.

What do you think?