How Public Perception Shape the Performance of the Fire Department

Emergency personnel occupying the fire and emergency services make day-to-day decisions and their behavior contributes to the constant evolving of public perceptions. The negative perception of the public due to their scrutiny of fire and emergency operations, budgets, and behavior has slowly tarnished the image of these departments. Therefore, measures should be undertaken in saving the image of the fire and emergency services field through talking openly, reflecting on honesty, working collaboratively, taking responsibility for upcoming issues and acting professionally. The following study looks at the perceptions of the public concerning the Fire Department and the factors influencing their opinions. In addition, the paper looks at what they do in an attempt to either increase or decrease the perceptions of their communities. Furthermore, it identifies the Fire Department’s activities aimed at establishing positive perceptions from community members.

Fire Departments continue to be under scrutiny, and they continue to struggle to maintain a positive image due to evolving communication technologies, economic pressures, and the changing social norms. This has taken the fire and emergency service department to re-examine the existing problem and develop resources that empower officers of various Fire Departments to address the public issue because it has threatened to erode public trust. The public’s perception not meant to judge any individual or institution because it reflects the human nature. Fixing the problem will entail taking ownership and being accountable for departmental actions.

Trust is an essential part of emergency departments, which includes the fire services where simple acts of community care are accorded to their clients. For Fire Departments, trust is important because it shows their ability when upholding the public’s safety and thus, is vital for the existence of the department. The mere fact that trust has been lost has eroded the image of the Fire Department. However, the perception of many government officials seems to deteriorate, and this has made them be viewed as any other government agency (IAFC, 2013). Fire service departments are also prone to opposing perceptions that have made life saving be a highly cast thing that has made it low-points, and this is a sharp contrast. From this, it is evident that trust and perceptions are related, but they are different since trust looks at a person’s belief, facts retrieved from given systems, and emotions that will predict future outcomes. In essence, trust is something that is more personal, and it develops over time. Perception, on the other hand, is a process where an individual makes analysis of both own assessment and the external environment. Competing ideas have constant push and pull effects that continue to wreak havoc on the public perception of the department (IAFC, 2013).

Performance of fire service departments have specific human factors affecting them and include leadership, decision-making, performance, communication, and desired results. By having all these they will align with harmony, the perception and reality of the case bring out positive outcomes. The perception of the public concerns itself mostly with communication where the Fire Department can have a good flow of information in their different departments. Moreover, the desired results will reflect on the perception of the public on how they can conduct their intended goal and mission, which is to protect the community from losing lives and even property among others (Trippett, 2014).

Decreased perception of the community is attributed to the fact that there are instances where the Fire Department does not meet its obligation of providing the community with care during emergencies. When such incidents arise, the public will look at the perception of wages where community members will protest and say that the firefighters are paid too much, and yet all they do is sleep, hang out, and wait for a fire (U.S. Fire Administration, 2013). When firefighters demand higher wages and even pricing issues, it becomes detrimental to the functioning of local government agencies, but the best is to ask for fair wages.
The public perception of local fire service is seen to affect their budgeting directly. Having a positive view of the Fire Department may be a way of convincing voters as the primary beneficiaries during emergencies. The notion of having a Fire Department in the community is to help the people when they need it. Thus, the more the public is aware of the services offered by the Fire Department, the more likely they are going to use them shortly. Increased perception of the community is evident when the Fire Department is in a positive economic environment because this will mean that they will have new equipment to bring safety to the community they serve. Moreover, this will also mean an increase in the number of staff under the Fire Department, which culminates down to the improvement of people’s living standard. Additionally, the hiring of new staff to the unit will mean that the economic condition of the community is promoted to bring about developments of varying degrees (U.S. Fire Administration, 2013).

Increasing the perception of the public will entail educating the public on the departments’ capabilities and limitations. For many people knowing what affects them directly are more important and since the service offered by Fire Departments affects them especially during emergencies, it becomes important to be accurate when giving fire reports. Most instances, the credibility of the department is lost when the public is scared due to lack of facts. The public gets most of its perceptions from the TV, the media, and movies. Therefore, we should save the reputation of Fire Departments through giving the public correct and accurate information. Firefighters are among the people in the world that tend to be emulated by many because of their quick response when responding to emergencies (U.S. Fire Administration, 2013).

On increasing the communities’ perception, Fire Departments should involve the city, which can be achieved through participating in community events. Moreover, the joining of civic organizations creates a visible presence demonstrating their community champion as a Fire Department. Through such efforts, the agency manages to get direct opportunities like the ability to gather and understand the perspective of the community they serve. Such chances are openings that help communities and the Fire Department to engage in educational programs. Moreover, involving the community means giving them an opportunity to build valuable allies (DeStefano, 2016).

The emphasis laid by Fire Departments on community engagement will be a way of creating a pipeline for future applicants. For example, adopt-a-school and fire cadet programs are initiatives that were started in America to offer youths and even young adults an opportunity to interact with personnel from Fire Departments (Johnson, 2016). Therefore, the interaction took place in non-emergency environments and through these programs; the individuals were able to learn more about the job of a firefighter. Moreover, the interaction enabled them to learn how the staffs of emergency medical can distinguish between genuine and prank callers (Johnson, 2016).
The other aspect of having such an engagement with the Fire Department personnel is in recruiting members from minority groups and the community they are serving. This approach is best suited for Fire Departments because they are taking a page from the rural areas and small towns and concentrating more on serving the community’s centerpiece. Recruitment literature of fire personnel can be handed out during community meetings, and when colleges have career days, the departments can conduct presentations geared towards enlightening the students on Fire Departments. Through such engagements, residents are given the opportunity of witnessing live demonstrations performed by Fire Departments about procedures of emergency-procedures (DeStefano, 2016).

Fire protection and the community are other areas that should be considered concerning the perception of the Fire Department. Cultural transformations are now seen in many Fire Departments across the state due to the community’s embracement in risk reduction. Moreover, the fact that Fire Departments have given equal value to public education has made a way to suppression of efforts. Therefore, through motivation, training, and constant and positive interaction with community members, fire protection can be promoted. Other programs that facilitate the promotion of fire protection include showing what the prevention measures have done for other communities (IAFC, 2011).

Communities also should be awarded funding resources that will help them in carrying out beneficial fire prevention activities. Those who want to secure future funding; they will need to have good evaluations and follow-up activities that help build on their documentation. For most of the funding opportunities available, they target those communities that lack smoke detectors or even alarm protection systems. Therefore, the funds received will go a long way in helping them install the devices and their city will become a point of reference for other states, continents, and countries (IAFC, 2011).


References
DeStefano, M. (2016, April). Positive public perception of the fire service. Fire Engineering. Retrieved from http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/2016/05/positive-public-perception-in-the-fire-service.html
International Association of Fire Chiefs, IAFC (2013, February). Taking responsibility for a positive public perception. International Association of Fire Chiefs. Retrieved from https://events.iafc.org/files/1DEPTadmin/TakingResponsiblity4PositivePublicPerception.pdf
International Association of Fire Chiefs, IAFC. (2011). Chief Officer: Principles and practice. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Johnson, S. (2016, November). How Fire Departments could look like the communities, they serve. Governing. Retrieved from http://www.governing.com/gov-institute/voices/col-steps-improve-fire-department-diversity.html
Trippett, J. B. (2014, January). Understanding human factors on the fireground. Fire Rescue Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.firerescuemagazine.com/articles/print/volume-9/issue-2/firefighting-operations/understanding-human-factors-on-the-fireground.html
U.S. Fire Administration. (2013). Strategies for marketing your Fire Department today and beyond. FEMA.