A few months back my department reinforced a standing policy that overnight Company duty crews need to be in place to provide a first due engine or truck. Each Company, on a rotating basis, provides one month of overnight service a few times a year. A firefighter came up to me a few days after the policy was reviewed by the Chiefs in front of the membership and made this startling statement, “Everyone is up in arms over this policy. Guys are going to just stop answering calls altogether if we have to spend months getting up overnight.” At one time in my life I would have immediately looked at this statement as a sign of mass internal discontent that could create an internal crisis within the department. I would go into crisis communications mode. But I’m older and smarter now and I use as the litmus test the famed Denniston Theory of Crisis Communications. Read More »