The Augusta Fire Department’s firefighters overwhelmingly agreed the current policy manual is inadequate and confusing, prompting Chief Antonio Burden to engage a consultant to generate policies for the department.
The department has hired Lexipol, a Frisco, Texas consulting firm that assists more than 9,000 agencies nationwide, to guide the project. Lexipol staff will write policies to the state level with added Augusta content and meet with Burden weekly to formulate them, company agent Kris Johanson told members of the city commission’s public safety committee Tuesday. Lexipol was started by two firefighters who became lawyers.
The consulting firm, specializing in public safety policy and training solutions, will continue monitoring the policies once they are in place and create training for department members while pushing the organization to create their own policies.
Lexipol also focuses on providing support for first responders and public safety departments. Its policies are designed to protect departments from legal claims and litigation.
The company is also eligible for American Rescue Plan funding that will pay for annual multiple subscriptions, Johanson said.
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Commissioner Brandon Garrett asked how long it would take to implement the policies, and Johanson said six to eight months.
“As policies and procedures get completed, they can be put out for the members,” he said.
Lexipol is the upshot of Burden’s review of the department’s policies and procedures as recommended in a report by the McGrath Consulting Group, another firm the commission hired in 2020 to look into serious ongoing morale and firefighter retention problems in the department under the leadership of former Chief Chris James.
Burden reviewed the policies himself and formed a working group that found the current policies too restrictive, which hindered fire personnel from making sound tactical decisions. Some policies are contradictory and create confusion in fire stations and out on emergency and fire scenes.
Burden also formulated a survey about the policies and procedures and asked all fire personnel to respond.
Only 61 percent responded they were “mostly or moderately” confident they understood the policies and procedures.
“Eighty-five percent of our firefighters think policies and procedures actively inhibits their job,” Burden told the committee. “That confusion directly affects performance.”
“When asked, ‘Do you feel the current policies and procedures manual need reviewing and updating?’ 99 percent thought so,” Burden said. “Ninety-nine percent of our firefighters want this policy and procedure process to take place.”
More than two-thirds of department personnel took the survey, Burden said.
Sylvia Cooper is a Columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
