Excerpts from foxillinois.com:
Springfield Fire Department Chief Allen Reyne decided to revamp and upgrade their policies. It’s going to cost $30,079 out of their budget, which was approved by the council. Reyne said these revisions will help with risk reduction and liability.
They’re hiring a company that Reyne says has a good reputation of being meticulous and careful to improve policies and procedures.
The policies need to be consistent with state law. Other updates will include adding standards for social media and driving a fire truck. Right now, some of the policies date back to the 90’s.
“So if God forbid we get in a traffic accident,” Reyne said. “It just reduces that risk for the taxpayers in the end.”
About $17,000 of the $30,000 will go to training to all 215 firefighters.
#1 by Drew Smith on September 8, 2018 - 11:49 PM
Lexipol is a California-based legal services program co-owned and operated by Gordon Graham, a retired California Highway Patrol captain and attorney. The policies that Lexipol authors are the ones that will get you in trouble if you don’t have them and follow them (ADA, FMLA, discrimination and harassment, etc.). Lexipol ensures the policies are always up to date. Space here prohibits more of an explanation but besides the authoring and updating, the documents are published in a secure online portal that tracks each firefighter’s reading and sign off on each and every policy. It is a subscription service. On a periodic basis the fire department chooses which policies to assign and how frequently to do so. Firefighters then login, read their policies, and sign off that they have done so. It is all tracked in a database. With regards to fireground operation policies, those are generally written by the local fire department and uploaded into the system.
After start up, there is an annual cost generally based per firefighter. I do not know how many firefighters are in Springfield and the article doesn’t state how the costs are broken down.
#2 by Jim S on September 8, 2018 - 8:40 PM
I can’t believe the city approved spending $30,079 on a company to update the fire departments policies and procedures. Fire chiefs talk with other fire chiefs all the time. I would beg, borrow, or steal (free on the Internet) another departments policy. Almost anything you need a policy on is already out there. Copy it, cover up the name of the department you got it from, and put your department name on it. I’m sure $30,000 could be used for something better.