Texas Firefighters Face Trouble due to DWI Offenses

Sept. 08--

When a veteran Austin firefighter was fired after a drunken driving arrest this summer, it came after a stern warning Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr had sent to all uniformed personnel about driving while intoxicated.

"It is inevitable that sooner or later, one of our own who makes the decision to drink and drive will seriously injure or kill another person," she said in a November memo. "While this behavior is not unique to the Austin Fire Department, it is a problem that, despite my best efforts, is not getting any better."

Several months later, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo expressed his own concerns about similar challenges with DWI within the Austin Police Department. Under a new policy, he said in April, officers would automatically be fired if an internal administrative investigation found they drove while drunk.

To gauge the prevalence of drinking and driving among public safety personnel in Austin, the American-Statesman reviewed public disciplinary records for the city's police and fire departments in the past 5 1/2 years -- from 2009, the year Kerr became chief, through July of this year, when firefighter Mark Madison was fired. During that time:

--Eighteen suspensions or firings at the Fire Department were related to DWI allegations, or about 36 percent of 50 disciplinary measures.

--Seven suspensions or firings at the Police Department were related to DWI allegations, or about 3 percent of 263 disciplinary measures.

--Twenty-two percent of all disciplinary measures at the Fire Department were related to incidents involving alcohol or drugs that do not appear to involve DWI. About 5 percent of all disciplinary actions at the Police Department were related to such incidents.

Disciplinary and jail records indicate that all but one of the firefighters and all but one of the police officers disciplined in connection with DWI were also arrested by a law enforcement agency and charged with the offense.

Kerr's memo mentions 18 DWI-related suspensions between February 2009 and October 2013, but our analysis found 16 cases during that time and two more cases in 2014. The department's professional standards office miscounted and the memo should have said 17 suspensions, a spokeswoman said. That 17th suspension was not included in the Statesman's analysis because it was not in the city's public disciplinary records.

In other major Texas cities, firefighters in San Antonio and Dallas saw a smaller percentage of suspensions or firings related to DWI, according to those cities. Twenty-two of 69 suspensions or firings from 2009 through July, or about 32 percent, were related to DWI in San Antonio. In Dallas, 18 of 108 punishments, 0r 16 percent, were related to DWI. The Houston Fire Department did not respond to a request for this information.

But fire officials in Austin cautioned against drawing conclusions from the data. When asked why the department has more discipline related to DWI incidents than the other public safety agencies, Austin Fire Department Chief of Staff Harry Evans said, "That's a simple question but there is no simple answer.

"Any attempt at answering that question would be complete speculation, as there are a whole host of mitigating factors that might affect whether or not the DWI rate within AFD (or in any other department) goes up or down," he said in an email, citing employee demographics, different policies among departments and how first responders cope with problems.

Evans said department records examined another way show officials there have conducted an average of 4.3 DWI-related investigations annually over the past seven years. The number of uniformed fire personnel has fluctuated slightly -- staying around 1,000 since 2009 -- yet the number of DWI-related suspensions and firings has varied from year to year. The same is true at the Police Department, which currently employs about 1,800 officers.

Evans said the department takes allegations of DWI-related incidents "extremely seriously" and thoroughly investigates such cases. In the memo Kerr issued in November, she said that DWI cases would be judged on their own merits and that firefighters should no longer expect that a first-time charge would guarantee a 10-day suspension, a punishment she has handed down for drunken driving in the past.

Marc Kruse, a psychologist for Austin's fire and EMS departments who specializes in alcohol research and treatment, said that there's a perception among college students, members of the military and public safety professionals that heavy drinking is normal behavior but that members of those populations don't necessarily drink heavily.

In an ongoing study, Kruse and others on a research team have tracked the daily drinking habits of firefighters around the country from before they enter their training academies through their first three years on duty. The study has shown that before entering the academy, there has not been significant use of drinking as a coping mechanism. However, by the end of the third year with a department, coping has been just as significant a reason for consuming alcohol as enhancing positive emotions, Kruse said.

The study suggests that "as you work in public safety, you get exposed to traumatic events, and your relationship to alcohol changes," he said.

Like Evans, Kruse said that without more specific information about the populations at different public safety agencies it would be "wild speculation" to say why the Austin Fire Department has had a higher proportion of DWI-related disciplinary action. That could include hiring more from a demographic already prone to higher DWI rates -- such as young, unmarried men -- or stricter disciplinary processes.

Punishments and policies for DWI have received some pushback at both the police and fire departments.

Police union leaders have said they oppose the zero-tolerance DWI policy, arguing that each case is different. Bob Nicks, president of the Austin Firefighters Association, said any DWI is too many but stressed that the city's firefighters are not an out-of-control population putting residents at risk.

DWI is a serious infraction and public safety employees should be held to a higher standard than others, he said, but he argued that Kerr doesn't consider extenuating circumstances when deciding how to punish people on the front line.

"This is the type of things we have been battling with this chief for quite some time," Nicks said. "We feel she's very heavy-handed and she has very little empathy or care for the people she leads, and this is just another example of that."

Nicks said Madison, for example, had never had an infraction in the 29 years he worked for the Fire Department before Kerr fired him in July over a DWI arrest.

In the memo explaining her reasons, she pointed to her November warning that first-time DWI allegations could lead to a termination. Despite this, she said, Madison drove while drunk.

The criminal case against him is still pending. He plans to appeal his firing.

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Watchdog coverage

American-Statesman reporter Ciara O'Rourke covers the city's police, fire and EMS departments. She analyzed several hundred city records to assess the scope of drunken driving among the city's first responders. Her reporting today reflects the Statesman's commitment to examining public safety policies and holding the departments accountable.

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