In the second part of this two-part series we finish our conversation with Captain Joe Powers, FO, from the Henrico County Division of Fire. This episode looks at the external side effects of CRR, focusing on how CRR can have a positive impact on the fire department’s relationship with your community’s governance. City and town administrators may speak a different language, focused on outcomes (lives and property saved) versus outputs (response time, number of calls), and CRR can be an instrumental part of helping you bridge this gap. According to Captain Powers, “When we start thinking in the form of outcomes rather than outputs, we’re able to start looking at, let’s say commercial fires in a completely different way. Rather than thinking about the number of commercial fires that we ran last year over a given period of time, we can start looking at the tax revenue that we sustained through having a fire department that’s able to respond quickly and mitigate incidents. We can also look at the job savings that occur. Outcomes are really the things that people care about. Outputs make pretty graphs a lot of times, but when it comes down to what elected officials and our community leaders are looking for, they’re really looking for outcomes.” Also, be sure to read Joe’s blog post on this topic over at the Center for Public Safety Excellence. https://cpse.org/2019/07/16/side-effects-of-crr/
Joseph Walters
Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshall (OSFM)
Executive Officer
Joe Walters is the Executive Officer for the State Fire Marshal, with the Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal (OSFM). As the first “Executive Officer ” Joe has been integral in moving the OSFM into the 21st century, from technology advancements, fleet refreshments, equipment needs to health and wellness awareness. Since 2016, he has also led a part in the agencies community risk reduction programs. He has been proactive in fire prevention programs throughout the State and has assisted with the dissemination of important fire & life saving information via social media and other platforms. He currently sits on the Mid Atlantic Life Safety Conference Committee as the operations command, trying to enhance the program. By trade he is a fire investigator and worked in the field for several years prior to the appointment of Executive Officer. He worked several high profile cases and made many arson and explosive related arrests. He has had the opportunity to sit in forums such as the Truman Symposiums and the FEMA AFG content development group. On his off time, he is a 20-year veteran of the volunteer fire service where he currently serves in the role of Captain. He has held many roles including Assistant Treasurer and Vice President. He is also an instructor for the National Safe Boating Council and specialize in the maritime rescue discipline. He and his wife own a small custom t-shirt business, which was started just before the birth of their child, in 2015. When not working, he loves sitting on the Chesapeake Bay on his boat or tearing up the mud four wheeling in the woods.
