Fire departments and their municipalities are hauled into court a lot. And verdicts and settlements can run from the thousands to the millions of dollars. When a claim is filed, be it for negligence, discrimination or harassment, you can bet the plaintiff’s attorneys will be pouring over fire department training records to see if the offense was isolated or the product of a bad system. That is not the time to wonder if your training and records keeping is up to par.
Fire departments must take proactive steps to protect themselves and their firefighters by creating a climate of rule-following, by installing sound policies, by enforcing those policies, by having an effective training platform, by holding firefighters accountable for that training and by keeping accurate records of their training. In addition to learning knew fire and EMS skills, and reducing acquired skill degradation, departments need to ensure they have a workplace free from harassing behaviors like bullying, retaliation, sexual misconduct and discriminatory practices. Using current best practices developed from education science will protect both the firefighters and their departments.
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