Due to a conflict, I couldn’t attend the debriefing following this year’s largest fire (Lincoln Public Schools Administration Building), but recnetly I sat in on a short review of a structure fire that occurred on July 5th on SW 10th Street. Battalion Chief Dean Staberg conducted the review. It was a nice assessment of what worked, what didn’t, and lessons learned.
A self-critique like this is a marvelous process for an organization to adopt. It is particularly valuable when the goal is to share information in a collegial setting aimed at performance improvement, not in second-guessing or blaming. I’d like to see more of this on the police side of public safety in Lincoln.
Here’s one simple tidbit, for example, that I picked up: rather than referring to the faces of a basically-rectangular structure by their compass point, LF&R designates them by letters: A, B, C and D (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta). The letters are assigned clockwise beginning with the main face where the address would be. This way, no one has to guess about the compass directions, which are often unclear in the dark, on winding streets, and when buildings are not oriented north-and-south. My house is a pretty good example: here’s the aerial photo. In this image, north is straight up. What would you call the side with the deck and patio? The north side? The west side? LF&R would call it the Charlie side--simply and effectively eliminating any confusion.
24 comments:
I see you have a reticle on your roof? Did it come with the house or is it an addon? LOL
The military has used AAR's for years. Probably the best way to make improvement. The naming of buildings by letters is also similar to what the military does. Only we use the clock method. Your 1 O'clock is on your right, etc.
Having listened to the scanner while the LFD fought the LPSDO fire, I can tell you there are no finer group of professionals. The female battalion chief coordinating resources during that event was so impressive - I still get chills thinking about it. The way she directed manpower, managed those on the ladders as the weather came in, etc. They may have lost that building but it was not due to anything the department did or didn't do. You are lucky to lead such a great team of dedicated heroes (in both departments actually)
That idea seems like a good one, especially in a case such as the one pictured. However, I doubt if it totally eliminates the confusion you mention. I know of one particular case that came to my own attention recently, and I'm sure there are many more.
In trying to establish the address of the house from which a pitbull charged me while I was walking my dogs one night, I used the property information map available on line. It gave an address which I provided to Animal Control when I made a complaint. I was later contacted by animal control, and they said I had the wrong address and gave me a different one that didn't show up at all on the property map. As it turned out, the house was a duplex with one front door facing Jones Street and one front door facing WYZ Street (imaginary streets to avoid identifying the party involved). My own house sits on a corner, and at one time had an apartment in the basement, giving the home two addresses, again facing two diffent streets. I've had a number of people come to my back door, not realizing it wasn't the front door, probably because that's the side my driveway exits to the street (as opposed to yours which exits from the front). Which side of these homes would be lettered with an A? I'm sure there are other examples.
I'm not complaining about the system, it may still work better than using directions; I'm just pointing out some potential problems. And, no, at present, I don't have any better ideas.
Director,
Is any written or otherwise retrievable assessment generated from the LF&R's AARs? A concern about liability or providing fodder for plaintiff's attorneys historically has kept law enforcement from getting enthusiastic about formal debriefings of incidents.
LPD has been doing this for years but they use a numbering system.
LFnR uses letters because firefighters can't count.
Hey Tom I'm curious about the photo on the LPD web page which shows a new black & white cruiser in front of a waterfall. I've never seen that waterfall before. Could you tell me where it is located? I'm thinking it would make for a good backdrop for photos.
Wilderness Ridge at about 22nd & Yankee Hill
6:55,
Aiming point for drone.
9:02,
Thanks!
10:56,
Yes, on our Intranet.
3:12,
Well I guess that explains why police officers don't use letters: can't spell. Wow, do I have a lifetime folder of accumulated evidence of hilarious police spelling problems. I think my favorite is the "injun" stolen out of a 1968 Camaro. I quit collecting "annual" and "penal" decades ago, but my second favorite would be an obscene phone call report in which the caller had a "gentile" voice. Oh, wait, that one was a deputy sheriff.
You know, research has proven that the ability to spell has absolutely NOTHING to do with intelligence. There are a gazillion factors that can cause some to learn/not learn how to spell correctly. IE.: frequent moves, learning concepts too early, being taught incorrectly, etc. I just feel the need to defend those that have trouble mastering the English language. It's not easy. And nobody should feel ashamed because because they didn't put the 'I' before 'E'. S--t happens in our school careers that can cause these issues. It's OK!
6:43
Baby boomers are being replaced by groups of young workers who have regrettably scored rather poorly in international educational match-ups over the last two decades. The average income of U.S. households headed by 25-year-olds and younger has been declining relative to the average income of the baby boomer population. This is a reasonably good indication that the productivity of the younger part of our workforce is declining relative to the level of productivity achieved by the retiring baby boomers. This raises some major concerns about the productive skills of our future U.S. labor force.
There is, sadly, much truth in what he says. The degradation of our educational system, thanks to a lack of accountability and a general resistance to innovation, is well-documented. This includes spelling.
It has been difficult for American students to keep pace with those from overseas when viewed through the lens of quantitative, objective metrics like standardized tests.
Anonymous 6:43 : I agree with you. Yes, it is very scary, isn't it?
You can't teach people to be smart, but you can provide them knowledge. I'm not so sure I agree with some others here as to the reasons behind the decline in our educational system. In the old days, repitition (rote) was used extensively for things like math and spelling. You didn't have to be smart. You just had to do the calculations, or write the words, over and over again until you knew your math tables and how to spell (at least the words on your weekly list). I think most of the schools have drifted away from that based on the notion that everyone is smart, so they should be able to understand math concepts and spelling rules. Even those who are truly smart would have difficulty with English spelling rules (too many exceptions and little logic). Math might be another story, but the old rote methods worked pretty well as far as I'm concerned.
Of course, passing kids on to the next grade, whether they mastered their current grade level or not, doesn't help either. But, God forbid we damage anyone's self-esteem by holding them back. Personally, I think being an adult who can't read or write or add or subtract would damage self-esteem a lot more.
I never was any good at spelling....
The Yavapai (Native American) language is strictly oral so there is no way to mis-spell anything.
I read 1984 when I was a teenager. I checked it out from the library again last week. Orwell nailed it when he wrote the story in the late 1940's. He was off a little bit in the timeline and "2014" might have been a better title. If any of you haven't read it, read it and see if you don't agree that Orwell was a prophet. Next on my list will be BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley.
Gun Nut
where this mornings post go to?
3:35,
A regular reader found it in poor taste, and asked me to remove it. I agreed.
After reading one of the comments and thinking about it, I would probably have to agree about pulling the latest post, though I'm sure you meant no harm or disrespect.
When I first read the chicken post, I did think it was pretty funny and I said so. But later, I started thinking that someone really got hurt pretty badly in that situation. I'm with you, Director. Thanks for reconsidering. You made a good call. If nobody had been hurt, it would have been a good story, though. Think of all the play-on-words people would have come up with!!!
Get a sense of humor folks. Life doesn't have to be so serious.
9:38,
Ridiculing criminals is a good thing, social ostracism of those who harm others is something we don't do often enough. Ridiculing violent crime victims is a whole other kettle of fish. Do that, in public and in person, with a rape victim and see if you can crawfish out of the blowback by telling people to get a "sense of humor".
The chicken suit guy got raped?
Post a Comment