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Letter: Norwalk Fire Chief Seeks To Increase Diversity In Hiring

NORWALK, Conn. -- The Norwalk Daily Voice accepts signed letters to the editor. Please send letters to norwalk@dailyvoice.com.

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To the editor:

As Chief of the Norwalk Fire Department, I am charged with providing the very best fire service possible to ensure the safety of the residents and visitors to the city as well as to protect our firefighters and officers. I take this responsibility seriously.

I would like to explain the importance of having a diverse fire department; our ongoing efforts to create diversity and the critical role we all play in helping achieve these goals.

The Norwalk Fire Department and I continue to seek solutions to our most challenging issues. We are a great department that has excellent training, great equipment and facilities. We are progressive and pro-active in our approach to public safety. 

Despite our achievements, we have not been successful in achieving or improving diversity on the department. With each testing cycle we have done better recruiting potential candidates. Unfortunately we have not improved the bottom line hiring.

I am striving to create a department that understands the needs of those that they serve and are trusted implicitly by the folks they protect day and night.

Many argue that they only want the very best to come to their rescue. I would agree, and as a department we must measure those skills and abilities that are relevant to job performance.

Testing and measurements must reflect the needs of the department, the community and the tasks that firefighters perform.

As with all programs and projects the Norwalk Fire Department provides, we consistently seek a broad range of input to improve the work product. As chief, I have sought broad representation and diversity of thought on all committees and work groups, because the outcome is always better and more thoughtful. Diversity must permeate not only the testing process but also all of our work.

My goal is to maintain the highest professional standard for our hiring process while achieving racial ethnic and gender diversity in the department closer to the diversity in the community. This has been the focus since 2005 and continues as we embark on a new selection process.

Our testing process in the past focused on a scored and impartial system that protected the city from legal challenges but added to the race, gender and ethnicity imbalance.

During the past three test cycles since 2005, we have tried to overcome the shortcomings by increasing the number of minorities participating.

Through some extraordinary recruitment efforts, we have raised the number of minorities taking the test to 25 percent of the applicant pool. Despite this increase we have not seen similar numbers in our hiring lists.  

Many current systems of written tests and oral examinations have built-in bias, which no amount of recruitment can overcome.

It is time for a complete overhaul of the process. My responsibility is to employ a system that produces the best firefighters so the department can ensure the highest standard of service.

We must consider a system that recognizes there are multiple methods to accurately assess candidates and their fitness for the job.

When you consider the types of emergencies we respond to it is not surprising that many great firefighters come from backgrounds that include mechanics, electricians, truck drivers, carpenters,military veterans, plumbers and those who work well in a team environment.

We have identified the problem and a clear method to address it. It is now up to me, our department and the community working together to follow through. The solutions, while clear are difficult.

We must:

  • Demonstrate that the new solutions will not lower the standards by which we hire firefighters.
  • Finance a system that is designed to keep candidates in the system and doesn’t seek to arbitrarily reduce the candidate pool.
  • Interview and evaluate a larger number of candidates.
  • Insure our recruitment efforts increase the numbers of minorities and females especially applicants from Norwalk Firefighters place their safety second to those they protect.

Denis McCarthy

Norwalk Fire Chief 

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