COOKING THE BOOKS b'bag ?

[68jk09]

Mon., Mar. 12, 2012

FDNY pulls ?fast? one with stats
By JOSH MARGOLIN


The Bloomberg administration is intentionally omitting key information from Fire Department data while boasting ?record low? response times ? even as firetrucks take up to two extra minutes to reach blazes, according to recent explosive testimony.

The revelation came from none other than the FDNY?s top communications official during a labor-dispute hearing.

?We don?t record the time from when the police [911] call taker makes contact with the caller until it gets to the fire[-dispatch system],? Fire Department communications chief Robert Boyce said in sworn testimony Jan. 19.

Under the old system, 911 police dispatchers took initial fire calls and then quickly, typically within four seconds, passed them to fire dispatchers, sources said. The fire dispatchers then did a lengthier interview with the caller, up to two minutes, before sending out a truck, the sources said.

The length of the initial 911 call had not been included in response times, but the longer fire-dispatch call was.

Then, in 2008, the system changed. Police dispatchers began handling the entire interview process ? and the time it takes hasn?t been included in department response data since.

Given the change, ?there?s no way for the city to determine whether or not the city of New York is responding to fires faster than they were,? Joshua Zuckerberg, a lawyer for the fire officers? union, told Boyce, according to transcripts from an arbitration dispute between the union and the Fire Department.

Boyce acknowledged, ?I think that?s fair to say.?

Brian Kuntz, president of the fire dispatchers? union, told The Post that ?the numbers are definitely skewed because they?re deleting the whole interrogation and they?re saying, ?We?re doing it better.?

?If you included those interrogations in the calls, they?d be a minute, at least, more than they?re telling you.?

FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon, when asked about the issue, insisted, ?It?s clear from the results from the last two years that our response times are the fastest ever . . . Fire deaths are at the lowest on record.?

jmargolin@nypost.com

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...
Oddly enough the day before the post story above concerning FDNY response times this story about the  Los Angeles FD was posted on the Chicago PD rant ......QUOTE......Sunday, March 11, 2012
Speaking of Fake Response Times...
Look what just broke over in L.A:

A Los Angeles mayoral candidate took an early campaign swipe at his leading opponents this week and inadvertently exposed the city Fire Department for publishing misleading performance data.

Top brass at the Los Angeles Fire Department on Friday admitted that for years the agency put out data that made it appear that firefighters were arriving at the scene of emergencies faster than they actually were.

Relying on Fire Department reports presented to lawmakers, Beutner said that in 2008 the department responded to medical emergencies within five minutes 86% of the time. After the cuts, the department last year met that standard just 59% of the time, he said.

Following Beutner's critique � and a Times inquiry � the department made an awkward admission: Data showing it did so well in the past was simply wrong.

Whoa. So they actually....like....lied? A government agency? But that could never happen here, right? The most corrupt state in the USA? Never!
UNQUOTE.......link to Chicago PD site that had story about LAFD response times.... http://www.secondcitycop.blogspot.com/

 

[Bulldog]

The information comes straight from the mouths of politicians, it obviously has to be correct!

 

[FDNY150]

You guys are surprised at this?? Read any post on UCT. The city has been lying about this since Day 1. Cassano came out in December of 2010 and said the system works, it didn't work then. 7 people were dead because of mistakes made by UCT. Boyce has come out and said the system works, it doesn't. Either wrong addresses, wrong locations in general, half A$$ed information, incorrectly routed incidents, or incidents not being routed at all. Do you really want me to continue??

Our beloved Mayor in his arrogance, our esteemed Fire Commissioner, and his Chief of Communications, in their toeing the line stance, will never come out and say this system is a failure, and that it hasn't worked since day one. I have to admit, I respected Cassano to the point that he was a guy who came up through the ranks, and was on his way to replace the clueless Uncle Nicky. When he sat in front of the City Council, as Chief of Department, and flat out LIED to them, that respect went out the window. I love how all the Chiefs and Politicians say Fire Dispatchers are the unsung heroes and love to blow smoke up our a$$es, but when there is a serious problem, it gets ignored, and they follow the Pied Piper that is the Billionaire in City Hall.

 

[FDNY150]

Actually, I will continue. I really don't fault the NYPD call takers for this. Most of them I have spoken to over the course of the past few years don't want to be taking Fire Calls to begin with. This got forced down their throats. They are also hogtied by the fact that they are told to take each call at face value, and not deviate from existing protocols, and in constant fear of losing money/time/their jobs for using their heads. They are not allowed to use common sense, nor can they really dig deeper into an interrogation.

This is how 240 Madison Street in Manhattan becomes 240 Madison Avenue. Or, East 13th Street in Brooklyn is actually East 13th Street in Manhattan. Or East 229 Street turns into 229 Drive North. I can blame that on the callers sometimes when they tell you they live at East 229 Street Drive North. But, you guys get my point. It also doesn't help that FDNY Communications management consistently stays silent about all of this, and has threatened disciplinary action if God forbid a Dispatcher should say over the air that an incorrect address was a UCT screw up.

 

[truck4]

Here's the original LAFD story from The LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beutner-fire-20120310,0,3891870.story