LAFD To Begin Publishing Monthly Verified Response Time Data Reports

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles Fire Department will begin releasing verified response time data to the public once a month, Mayor Eric Garcetti and Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said Thursday.

The emergency response agency has been plagued by questions over the accuracy of its response time data since department officials admitted in 2012 the data they had been releasing showed firefighters were responding faster than they actually were.

Officials at the time blamed the inaccurate data on a faulty process for crunching the times recorded in their dispatch system.

The Los Angeles Fire Department website will begin publishing monthly updates on average citywide and response times that have been triple-checked internally by fire department officials and by two separate consultants.

The mayor's open data portal will also post raw data of how quickly firefighters are responding to emergency and fire calls.

The fire department's website now has information showing monthly response times from January 2013 through September 2014.

The department is also starting a citywide implementation of FireStat, a process for talking about and collecting data about its performance.

Fire officials will study the data to find trends in how well services are being rendered, the types and locations of emergency calls, and how much aid or resources are needed in different parts of the city.

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