The pressure for cost-cutting, coupled with the need to provide adequate staffing for emergency services, leaves many local government officials struggling to do more with less. Can emergency medical services operate on a reduced budget without sacrificing coverage? The answer can be found by knowing the right questions to ask police and fire chiefs to make informed data-driven decisions about cost-savings in those departments.

In a May 8 ICMA webconference, Leonard Matarese, director of research  and project development for ICMA's Center for Public Safety Management, outlined the questions that city and county officials need to ask their police and fire chiefs to better determine how to staff emergency management teams.

The webconference began with the question "What is the FBI recommended number of officers per thousand of a jurisdiction of your size?" The answer, by the way, is that there is no such FBI recommendation. From there, Matarese presented research findings that help to dispel many staffing myths and make a compelling case for workforce alignment.

For example, survey findings from The Police Foundation Shift Length Experiment indicate that those officers assigned to eight-hour shifts worked an average of 5.75 hours of overtime per two-week period. That's more than five times as much overtime per two-week period as those on 10-hour shifts, which reported working an average of 0.97 hours of overtime. Efficiencies with overtime drop off slightly when moving to a 12-hour shift with average reported overtime at 1.89 hours per two-week period.

Matarese also reported that quality of life issues seem to improve with a 10-hour shift, as officers surveyed claim to get more sleep than those working an eight-hour shift. Officers on 10-hour shifts also reported a higher quality of work life. Adjusting the length of the workday wasn't the only factor explored; varying start times and using research to determine seasonal trends for emergency calls is an important consideration when aligning the work force.

Fire departments also benefit from workforce alignment. Matarese explains the findings of the NIST Report on Residential Fireground Field Experiments. The report concluded that four-person crews completed the same number of fireground tasks on average of 5.1 minutes faster (nearly 25 percent) than three-person crews. Another conclusion was that a four-person crew operating on a low-hazard structure fire can complete laddering and ventilation (for life safety and rescue) 30 percent faster than a two-person crew and 25 percent faster than a three-person crew.

Finally, Matarese explored staffing issues with regard to emergency medical services. He offered direct questions to consider, such as:

• How much 'stored capacity' can you afford?
• Why do we send an ambulance and a fire truck to a medical call?
• Are we duplicating efforts?
• What are the survival rates coming out of the hospital?

Read more about the webconference.