Thursday, November 7, 2013

Fire Data


One of my assignments when working with Casa Grande involved a brief but potent research project doing a comparative look at other departments. It was a lot of phone calls, messages and emails but I eventually got all of the information I needed. 

Week 13:
Friday I began a quick research project for the Deputy City Manager. It involved calling local municipality fire departments to find out some information regarding their annual calls for services, clarifying how many stations they have in use and the number of frontline units they have available to them. From that information I am able to determine the population served per unit, the annual responses by population and the number of incidents per day per population. Because of it being Friday and many individuals who work in public safety work different schedules, I have to continue the assignment next week. Most individuals work 4-10’s, meaning they work 4 10-hour days per week rather than 5 8-hour days. 

Week 14: 
It took a few days to get contacts back from the various cities about the fire data, but eventually, I got most of the answers I was looking for. I also drafted letters to all of the recipients of soccer cards from RECon (it’s the project that keeps on giving) and had a meeting regarding the wrap up of RECon 2013. I met with Richard and Ben and discussed what worked and what didn’t for this past year as well as what to make note of for next year.

Week 16: 
Beginning a new project is always exciting, as is wrapping up a project. I have meetings this week with both the assistant fire chief and the deputy city manager to go over the data I have compiled in regards to the Arizona municipal fire departments. It was interesting information to compile and I’m looking forward to taking it forward. 

In addition to the spreadsheet I had made, I also met with the GIS department to see about getting a map for our local CFS (calls for service) data. The CAD software we used wasn't like what I was used to with Scottsdale Public Safety and so GIS had to go in and individually select each kind of call I was interested for different time periods. My time with Casa Grande was quickly coming to an end because of my relocation to Los Angeles and the maps came in a couple of days before I left. When I got them, we needed some changes made so I was unable to see the final product. I don't like leaving projects left undone, but the Deputy City Manager had the information he was most interested in and was able to use it moving forward. 

2 comments:

  1. I have a lot of research projects that involved emailing/calling various people from all over the country- usually we are comparing something about our solid waste program. It can be really frustrating and sometimes it takes forever to find the right person to talk to, but a lot of times I was excited about how much people are willing to help you.

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  2. Megan, it was so cool because people jumped at the chance to help! There were a few people who were somewhat skeptical and became helpful only after they had my city email address, but I definitely get that! It's a great reminder that you should never hesitate to ask someone for something because people are more often more than willing to give assistance!

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