Making Communities Safer Through Collaborative Efforts
Focusing on common purpose helps keep the team on task.
What makes a good partnership work? These days the ‘connecting the dots’ strategy of building coalitions and breaking down agency barriers is one of the primary focal points for the overall homeland security effort. In February of 2014, I had the privilege to witness collaboration at its finest.
Podium construction is a quick way to throw up big buildings at a low cost. Essentially, it amounts to Type I construction on the lower levels, (Fire Resistive) and Type V, (Lightweight wood) above. In the fire business, we call these vertical lumberyards. Within the “new construction” chapter of the International Fire Code, buildings under construction that surpass 40’ in height are required to provide a temporary stand pipe, with connections within 150’ feet of all portions of each floor. In late January the Salt Lake City Fire Prevention Bureau found a construction site that had not complied with the requirement and a Stop Work Order was issued until the site could be brought into compliance. They did and two weeks later it burned to the ground.
The following day, because of the financial loss of the structure, the decision was made to bring in a National Response Team (NRT) from the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). I wasn’t sure what to expect, but here’s what we got:
1) 20-25 ATF agents from every corner of the country within 36 hours of the call out.
2) Technological tools for compiling, analyzing and recording all data collected on the case.
3) Agents combing neighborhoods for witnesses and video surveillance recordings.
4) Back-up on all interrogations and interviews.
5) Certified Fire Investigators assisting at the fire scene with a meticulous and methodical crime scene investigation.
6) Daily briefings
7) And most importantly, seamless integration with local resources.
The effort was a tremendous success. We had a suspect in four days, an initial confession that it was an accident in five days and, with the pressure of the skillfully obtained evidence from the scene, a confession that the fire had been intentionally set before a week had passed.
All parties involved understood what needed to be done. What really made the difference in my mind was how it was done. The ATF agents and the SLCFD investigators all came together and maintained focus on the common purpose. There was never an instant that either side felt threatened, minimized, taken advantage of, or excluded from any component of the operation.
This is what collaboration looks like and this is how we lace together the expertise it takes on a daily basis to continue to protect our communities and country. In all likelihood the rapid closure of this case decreased the appeal of a like or copycat effort from taking place at one of the dozens of similar job sites in the Salt Lake Valley, positively impacting the safety and security of the region. Examples like this serve as a model for future efforts in homeland security to draw from.
