Fire Service Accreditation: Are There Positive Outcomes On The Urban 10-Tear Accredited Community?

Why????

Why is the research important? Emerging Standards, Assessments and accreditation models can standardized and define the disciplines that provide public service (Doerner & Doerner, 2012; Joly et al, 2007) No empirical research of the nexus between public services and delivery outcomes (DeBritz & Pollak, 2006, Doener & Doerner, 2012)

Hearing Aids

Significance of the Study Resources Staff-hours Equipment purchases Fees (Consulting & Accreditation) Local Level Demonstrate the effective use of public resources Broader Fire Service Information to make educated decisions Justification to Appointed and Elected Officials Academia Increases our base of knowledge

Theory or Argument Theory/Hypothesis: If a fire service agency successfully completes the accreditation process over a 10 year period, then the subsequent effects on the community should be positive. Performance indicators should trend in a positive direction. Hunch or suspicion motivates the research Must be answered by statistical hypotheses

Research Questions Research Question 1: Does fire service accreditation result in positive measurable community outcomes after an Urban fire service organization completes the second re-accreditation process? Research Question 2: Does fire service accreditation result in a positive measurable community outcome within an Urban 10-year accredited agency’s community in comparison to an equivalent community where the fire service agency does not participate in accreditation?

Literature Review Fire Service Accreditation Public Service Accreditation Public Health Service Law Enforcement Public Works Emergency Management Public Safety Communications Measurable variables that have a financial influence on the community

NOTHING!!!! Outputs, Outputs, Outputs!!! Public Health Services (Joly et al, 2007, p352)

Nothing!!!! When local government officials consider pursuing accreditation, they must keep several factors in mind. Traditional performance measures used by local government managers do not capture the benefits of the accreditation process. Proponents of accreditation have to anticipate this empirical problem and plan for new methods of measuring benefits. Based on this research, public works departments should seek out nontraditional means of assessing the benefits of organizational change from accreditation. (Tzoumis & Delaney, 1999, p. 342)

Literature Review Accreditation effect on performance Determine if the treatment causes the difference Determining Measurable Variables What measurable variables reflect a significant effect on the community? Fire Suppression (Core Function) Casualties ISO Rating Property Loss Insurance Premiums

Current Fire Service Benchmarking ISO FSRS Advantages Well established – well known Evaluates the community’s ability to prevent, respond and mitigate structure fires Utilizes National Standards Lower ISO Rating = economic development incentive Disadvantages Cost to improve rating Evaluates structure fire suppression capabilities only Focus is the insurance industry A reduction of rating can become political

117 accredited fire agencies rated under new schedule (Weber, 2016)

Current Fire Service Benchmarking CPSE Accreditation Advantages Holistic evaluation of programs Utilizes National Standards Community Risk Analysis Organization recognition Economic development tool Disadvantages Resource commitment (personnel and funding) Time commitment Aspects that the fire service agency cannot control Identifies areas of improvement (political tool)

Methods Broad Research Questions must be answered by posing more specific research questions What is the urban 10-year accredited community’s annual firefighter and civilian casualty rates before and after accreditation and how do these casualty rates compare to like non-accredited communities? What is the urban 10-year accredited community’s annual fire property loss before and after accreditation and how do these causality rates compare to like non-accredited community?

Methods What is the urban 10-year accredited community’s ISO FSRS rating before and after accreditation and how do these ISO FSRS rates compare to like non-accredited community? What is the urban 10-year accredited community’s annual insurance rate on a 2600 square foot home of ordinary construction after accreditation and how do these insurance rates compare to like non-accredited community?

Population and Sample Population to be study – 216 Accredited fire service agencies Data set provide by CPSE of 216 agencies US, Career, Urban, 2nd reaccreditation, rated under old ISO schedule 67 agencies meet criteria, 27 had two + accreditations, 19 rated under the old schedule Spartanburg was excluded Comparison departments selected from NFIRS Census Data 27,198 agencies, 745 meet criteria, sampling fraction developed by dividing by 19

Variables Casualties ISO Rating Property Loss Insurance Premiums NFIRS – total casualties for civilian and fire personnel normalize by population of 1000 ISO Rating Accredited agency provided rating and non-accredited agency provided by ISO Property Loss NFIRS – total property loss normalized by COL Insurance Premiums Quotes from national insurance companies normalized by COL

Accreditation Affect on the Organization Could not be determined Lack of data from 2004 and 2009 Four of the nineteen agencies could provide the data

Data Analysis of Comparable Agencies Descriptive Summary Statistics Diagnostic Testing Type I errors, Outliers, Normality of Variables, Skewness/Kurtosis test for Normal Data Bivariate Analysis of Independent Variable Frequency Comparison Chart T-Test Correlation Z-score

Results Descriptive Summary and Diagnostic Testing reveal variables were within acceptable limits for statistical analysis Frequency charts were consistent with descriptive statistics and provided a visual indication that accredited agencies frequency of values were lower overall than non-accredited agencies.

Statistically Significant Concerned with the a research result or sampling variable, current research standard is 90% to 95% confidence level T-Test in which a p-score is derived. P-score of less than .05 infers the probability the hypothesis is true at 95% confidence level T-Test Result Causality – 0.0098 ISO Rating – 0.0325 Property Loss – 0.3234 Insurance Premiums – 0.2473

Practically Significant Is concerned with the whether the result is useful in the real world Practical significance may be more effective in describing the difference in small sample as “small sample size requires a large absolute difference between groups to demonstrate statistical significance” (Daniel, 1977, p. 404) Z-score is utilized in which .5 is the center of the variable range. The two comparison variables are compared and the closer both variables move toward the center, the less significant the difference is.

Practically Significant Z-scores Casualty – Accredited .01, Non-Accredited 0.99 ISO Rating – Accredited .03, Non-Accredited 0.97 Property Loss – Accredited .26, Non-Accredited 0.68 Insurance Premiums – Accredited .24, Non-Accredited 0.76

Conclusion Research is inconclusive in regards to the theory that fire service accreditation results in positive measurable community outcomes after a fire service organization completes the re- accreditation process twice. This research supports fire service accreditation results in a positive measurable community outcome within an urban 10-year accredited agency’s community in comparison to an equivalent community where the fire service agency does not participate in accreditation.

Recommendations Improved selection of comparable fire service agencies CPSE benchmark selected variables of Registered Agencies which captures the data before the treatment of accreditation Conduct research on same variables when population sample increases Expand the scope of the research to measure EMS, Fire Prevention, Fire Education on community outcomes

Recommendations Examine the Qualitative side of accreditation Examine the accuracy of NFIRS data Examine the actual ISO scores to determine the exact areas of improvement provided by accreditation

Questions???? Wake The Person Next to You Questions????