Page 8 - InCommand Volume 31

Diversity in the Fire Service and
the Culture of a Community
Chief Brian Byrd
Author Bio Chief Brian Byrd
Chief Brian Byrd was appointed to the
Toledo Fire and Rescue Department on February 5th of 1988. He was promoted
to Lieutenant in 1992, Captain in 1997, Battalion Chief in 2000, Deputy Chief in 2008 and was appointed Chief of Toledo Fire & Rescue Department on August 3, 2018. As
a Lieutenant, he received certification as a Nationally Registered EMT-Paramedic from the Northwest Ohio Paramedic Training Program at the Medical College of Ohio, where he received both Academic and Clinical Excellence Awards. Graduating from St. John’s Jesuit High School as a National Merit Scholar, Chief Byrd has attended the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Toledo, Owens Community College, and the National Fire Academy. He served as a member of the Department of Homeland Security-Emergency Medical Services Subcommittee and the Ohio EMS Board Medical Transportation Committee and Critical Care Subcommittee. He also served as the Lucas County Coordinator for the Ohio Fire Chiefs’ Emergency Response Plan. Chief Byrd has been involved in the community
as a member of the Advisory Board for the Salvation Army and the Board of Directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Ohio. He also served as the National Chairman
for the African American Male Wellness Initiative. He is actively involved in numerous other health and community initiatives locally, in the state of Ohio and across the country.
Chief Byrd was the first African American in Toledo Fire and Rescue Department history to achieve the position of number one on a promotional exam.
In public safety, we often hear about the challenges faced by departments across the country when it comes to achieving and maintaining diversity within their ranks. Therefore, the first question that must be asked is this: “What is diversity and what does it mean for the fire service?”
For the Toledo Fire & Rescue Department (TFRD), there is a simple answer. We want a department that
is reflective of the community that it serves. However, achieving this goal requires us to take an honest look
at our history. We must then make determinations on the best ways to address the issues that affect our ability to obtain the desired outcomes.
In order to determine our future path, we must first look at our past.
In 1974, a court-mandated agreement (Consent Decree) went into effect that governed the hiring practices of TFRD. This mandate
was put in place because of historical inequities in hiring practices resulting in lack of diversity on the department. As a result, in 1984, the department hired its largest class of minorities. Subsequent classes also contained minority candidates, but in smaller numbers. These classes were able, for a period of several years, to maintain the desired overall diversity, with the exception being the very low number of African American females.
In 2010, the consent decree was vacated based on the city’s position that it was adhering to the 1974 court order and that it had achieved a level of diversity consistent with that order. The city also agreed to put into place, through its civil service requirements, the mandates of the consent decree and to form a citizens committee for
firefighter recruitment, outreach, and retention. These well-intentioned changes, however, did not prevent the subsequent decrease in diversity of the department. Now we are faced with determining why the decrease occurred despite these efforts.
The first area we need to address is recruiting. Who and how do we recruit?
In most of the department’s past recruiting campaigns, the emphasis was placed on getting high numbers of minority applicants without consideration of their probability of success. This strategy failed miserably. We, therefore, needed to change the emphasis from numbers to capability. This change in emphasis applies not only to minority recruits, but to all recruits due to the highly technical demands of the current fire and EMS service. However, this change poses
a particular challenge for potential minority recruits in urban areas affected by lack of funding for school systems, disparate access to health care, disparate access to healthy food, and numerous other challenges posed by living in underserved communities.
We cannot ignore these socioeconomic and historical factors if we want success in our efforts.
Most of the department’s past recruiting efforts were limited to approximately six weeks prior to testing. This time frame was woefully insufficient and did not allow for adequate time and contact with potential recruits.
TFRD has made changes in our recruiting campaign to address these challenges. The department’s recruiting effort has been renamed
8 InCommand JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2020 • www.ohiofirechiefs.org