National City City Council
April 18, 2023

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SECTION 10. SUMMARY
Throughout this report we have endeavored to provide the reader with insight into the National City Police Department, its strengths, and opportunities for improvement.

CPSM recognizes that the recommendations, especially those involving added personnel, come at a significant cost. Please be assured that these recommendations were not made lightly, but with significant consideration regarding the operational necessity associated with each position.

In one case, we recommended a reduction in staffing, but only if what we believe is unnecessary workload is modified or transferred.

We further recognize that implementing many of these recommendations, should the NCPD choose to do so, may in some cases take months or perhaps much longer. We would encourage the department leadership to work with the Chief on identifying those recommendations that are most critical. As well, we would make ourselves available to consult as necessary and appropriate.

Additionally, a comprehensive data analysis report will follow. While the more pertinent aspects of that analysis are embedded in the operational assessment, readers are encouraged to review the data analysis report in its entirety.

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SECTION 11. DATA ANALYSIS
This data analysis on police patrol operations for the National City Police Department focuses on three main areas: workload, deployment, and response times. These three areas are related almost exclusively to patrol operations, which constitute a significant portion of the police department’s personnel and financial commitment.

All information in this analysis was developed using data recorded by the department’s computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related lockdowns affected 2020 call volumes and all law enforcement agency workloads. For this reason, CPSM collected data for 2019 and 2020, but focused its analysis on 2019’s data. Appendix C displays an analysis of workloads and deployed personnel for the 2020 calendar year. The majority of the first section of the report, concluding with Table 11-11, uses call data for one year. For the detailed workload analysis, we use two eight-week sample periods. The first period is from January 4 through February 28, 2019, or winter , and the second period is from July 7 through August 31, 2019, or summer.

WORKLOAD ANALYSIS
When CPSM analyzes a set of dispatch records, we go through a series of steps:
■ We first process the data to improve accuracy. For example, we remove test records that do not indicate an actual activity. We also remove incomplete data, as found in situations where there is not enough time information to evaluate the record. ■ At this point, we have a series of records that we call “events.” We identify these events in three ways:
□ We distinguish between patrol and nonpatrol units.
□ We assign a category to each event based upon its description. □ We indicate whether the call is “zero time on scene” (i.e., units spent less than 30 seconds on scene), “police-initiated,” or “community-initiated.” ■ We then remove all records that do not involve a patrol unit to get a total number of patrol- related events.
■ At important points during our analysis, we focus on a smaller group of events designed to represent actual calls for service. This excludes events with no unit time spent on scene and directed patrol activities.

In this way, we first identify a total number of records, then limit ourselves to patrol events, and finally focus on calls for service.

As with similar cases around the country, we encountered several issues when analyzing National City’s dispatch data. We made assumptions and decisions to address these issues. ■ 1,003 events (about 4 percent) involved patrol units spending zero time on scene. ■ One call lacked accurate busy times. We excluded this call when evaluating busy times and work hours.

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■ The computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system used approximately 205 different event descriptions, which we condensed into 20 categories for our tables and 12 categories for our figures (shown in Chart 11-1). Table 11-20 in the appendix shows how each call description was categorized.

Between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019, the communications center recorded approximately 26,043 events involving a responding patrol unit. When measured daily, the department was dispatched to an average of 71 patrol-related events per day, approximately 4 percent of which (3 per day) had fewer than 30 seconds spent on the call.

In the following pages, we show two types of data: activity and workload. The activity levels are measured by the average number of calls per day, broken down by the type and origin of the calls, and categorized by the nature of the calls (crime, traffic, etc.). Workloads are measured in average work hours per day.

CHART 11-1: Event Descriptions for Tables and Figures
Table Category Figure Category Common Call Descriptions Alarm Alarm 459A AUDIBLE BURG ALARM;
211A ROBBERY ALARM; 459S SILENT BURG ALARM
Assist Assist other agency ASSIST OTHER AGENCY; MEDICAL; FIRE OTHER Check Check CHECK THE WELFARE; CITIZEN FLAG
Crime Crime-person 242 BATTERY; 415 DV-VIOLENT;
242R BATTERY REPORT
Crime Crime-property 488R PETTY THEFT REPORT;
594R VANDALISM/MAL MISCHIEF RT; 10851 REPORT
Directed patrol Directed patrol EXTRA PATROL; 11-86 SPECIAL DETAIL;

PRESERVE THE PEACE
Disturbance Disturbance 415 SUBJECT; 415 REFUSING TO LEAVE; 5150 MENTAL SUBJECT
General
noncriminal Animal ANIMAL VICIOUS/INJURED/SICK;
ANIMAL ROUTINE; ANIMAL AT LARGE
General
noncriminal Follow up FOLLOW-UP
General
noncriminal Miscellaneous SELF INITIATED; HAZARD; MISCELLANEOUS Investigation Investigation 11-50 FIELD INTERVIEW; MISSING PERSON;

UNKNOWN PROBLEM
Out of service Out of service–admin. TRAINING/TEST
Suspicious Suspicious incident SUSPICIOUS SUBJECT; SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES; 11-8 PERSON DOWN
Traffic Accident 11-82 ACCIDENT NON-INJURY; 11-83 ACCIDENT NO DETAIL; 20002R HIT & RUN NON-INJ RT
Traffic Traffic enforcement PARKING COMPLAINT; 11-88 STALLED VEHICLE; 23103 RECKLESS DRIVER
Traffic Traffic stop TRAFFIC STOP
Violation Violation 602 TRESPASSING; IMPOUND PD;
602R TRESPASSING REPORT

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FIGURE 11-1: Percentage Events per Day, by Initiator

Note: Percentages are based on a total of 26,043 events.

TABLE 11-1: Events per Day, by Initiator
Initiator No. of Events Events per Day
Community-initiated 16,163 44.3
Police-initiated 8,877 24.3
Zero on scene 1,003 2.7
Total 26,043 71.4
Observations:
■ 4 percent of the events had zero time on scene.
■ 34 percent of all events were police-initiated.
■ 62 percent of all events were community-initiated.
■ There was an average of 71 events per day or 3.0 per hour.

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FIGURE 11-2: Percentage Events per Day, by Category

Note: The figure combines categories in the following table according to the description in Chart 11-1.

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TABLE 11-2: Events per Day, by Category
Category No. of Events Events per Day
Accident 1,147 3.1
Alarm 1,145 3.1
Animal 186 0.5
Assist other agency 639 1.8
Check 2,796 7.7
Crime–person 1,691 4.6
Crime–property 2,646 7.2
Directed patrol 1,311 3.6
Disturbance 4,130 11.3
Follow-up 1,102 3.0
Investigation 1,422 3.9
Miscellaneous 2,034 5.6
Out of service–administrative 8 0.0
Suspicious incident 1,597 4.4
Traffic enforcement 756 2.1
Traffic stop 2,947 8.1
Violation 486 1.3
Total 26,043 71.4
Note: Observations below refer to events shown within the figure rather than the table.

Observations:
■ The top three categories accounted for 51 percent of events. □ 19 percent of events were traffic-related.
□ 17 percent of events were crimes.
□ 16 percent of events were disturbances.

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FIGURE 11-3: Percentage Calls per Day, by Category

Note: The figure combines categories in the following table according to the description in Chart 11-1.

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TABLE 11-3: Calls per Day, by Category
Category No. of Calls Calls per Day
Accident 1,125 3.1
Alarm 1,124 3.1
Animal 177 0.5
Assist other agency 625 1.7
Check 2,586 7.1
Crime–person 1,658 4.5
Crime–property 2,607 7.1
Disturbance 3,874 10.6
Follow-up 1,066 2.9
Investigation 1,392 3.8
Miscellaneous 1,947 5.3
Suspicious incident 1,532 4.2
Traffic enforcement 671 1.8
Traffic stop 2,936 8.0
Violation 463 1.3
Total 23,783 65.2
Note: The focus here is on recorded calls rather than recorded events. We removed 1,003 events with zero time on scene, 1,250 directed patrol events, and 7 out-of-service activities.

Observations:
■ On average, there were 65.2 calls per day, or 2.7 per hour. ■ The top three categories accounted for 54 percent of calls:
□ 20 percent of calls were traffic-related.
□ 18 percent of calls were crimes.
□ 16 percent of calls were disturbances.

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FIGURE 11-4: Calls per Day, by Initiator and Month

TABLE 11-4: Calls per Day, by Initiator and Months
Initiator Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Community 42.0 39.8 41.1 40.2 40.3 44.2 45.7 49.9 44.6 44.6 45.0 41.3 Police 22.0 28.6 22.7 24.4 23.4 22.9 20.4 21.7 21.1 17.7 20.1 18.6 Total 64.0 68.4 63.8 64.6 63.7 67.1 66.0 71.7 65.7 62.3 65.1 59.9 Observations:
■ The number of calls per day was lowest in December.
■ The number of calls per day was highest in August.
■ The months with the most calls had 20 percent more calls than the months with the fewest calls.
■ February had the most police-initiated calls, with 62 percent more than October, which had the fewest.
■ August had the most community-initiated calls, with 26 percent more than February, which had the fewest.

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FIGURE 11-5: Calls per Day, by Category and Month

Note: The figure combines categories in the following table according to the description in Chart 11-1.

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TABLE 11-5: Calls per Day, by Category and Month
Category Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Accident 2.8 2.9 3.5 2.7 2.5 3.0 2.8 3.2 3.2 3.5 3.3 3.6 Alarm 2.5 3.2 3.4 2.4 3.3 2.9 3.6 3.2 2.5 4.0 3.2 2.8
Animal 0.5 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.7 0.3
Assist other agency 1.9 1.4 1.8 1.5 1.7 2.3 2.0 1.7 1.7 1.6 1.6 1.3 Check 5.5 5.6 6.0 6.8 6.6 8.0 7.1 8.5 8.2 6.8 8.5 7.4
Crime–person 4.0 3.9 4.7 4.4 4.7 4.8 5.3 5.4 4.8 4.2 4.4 3.9 Crime–property 7.7 7.5 7.4 6.5 6.5 6.4 7.7 7.4 6.5 7.2 7.1 7.8 Disturbance 11.0 8.6 9.7 10.3 9.8 10.5 11.3 13.1 11.0 11.9 11.2 8.9 Follow-up 2.1 4.0 3.5 2.8 2.8 3.0 3.3 2.9 3.1 2.3 2.9 2.4 Investigation 4.1 4.6 4.3 3.8 3.0 3.7 3.4 3.8 3.9 3.3 3.2 4.7 Miscellaneous 6.0 6.7 5.0 5.7 4.9 5.2 5.3 5.6 5.4 4.9 4.5 5.0 Suspicious incident 3.6 3.8 3.5 4.0 4.2 5.2 5.4 4.6 3.8 3.8 4.0 4.3 Traffic enforcement 1.8 2.0 1.4 1.4 1.8 1.6 1.9 2.1 2.5 2.0 2.0 1.5 Traffic stop 9.1 12.3 8.3 10.3 9.7 8.5 5.4 8.4 7.3 5.8 7.2 4.8 Violation 1.2 1.4 0.8 1.5 1.7 1.4 1.2 1.4 1.6 0.5 1.2 1.3 Total 64.0 68.4 63.8 64.6 63.7 67.1 66.0 71.7 65.7 62.3 65.1 59.9 Note: Calculations were limited to calls rather than events.

Observations:
■ The top three categories averaged between 51 and 57 percent of calls throughout the year:
□ Traffic calls averaged between 9.9 and 17.2 calls per day throughout the year. □ Crime calls averaged between 11.0 and 13.0 calls per day throughout the year. □ Disturbance calls averaged between 8.6 and 13.1 calls per day throughout the year . ■ Crime calls accounted for 17 to 20 percent of total calls.

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FIGURE 11-6: Primary Unit’s Average Occupied Times, by Category and Initiator

Note: The figure combines categories using weighted averages from the following table according to the description in Chart 11-1.

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TABLE 11-6: Primary Unit’s Average Occupied Times, by Category and Initiator Category Community-Initiated Police-Initiated
Minutes Calls Minutes Calls
Accident 40.0 913 31.1 212
Alarm 13.8 1,098 9.8 26
Animal 26.0 157 23.0 20
Assist other agency 30.0 428 28.1 197
Check 27.6 1,936 17.5 650
Crime–person 54.5 1,565 51.2 93
Crime–property 40.8 2,408 48.6 199
Disturbance 33.4 3,706 38.6 168
Follow-up 29.5 182 23.7 884
Investigation 47.2 540 31.8 851
Miscellaneous 29.6 607 26.6 1,340
Suspicious incident 30.3 1,363 52.1 169
Traffic enforcement 16.9 504 18.4 167
Traffic stop NA 0 16.1 2,936
Violation 24.9 378 26.8 85
Weighted Average/Total Calls 34.1 15,785 23.8 7,997
Note: For this table, we removed one call with an inaccurate busy time. The information in Figure 11-6 and Table 11-6 is limited to calls and excludes all events that show zero time on scene. A unit’s occupied time is measured as the time from when the unit was dispatched until the unit becomes available again. The times shown are the average occupied minutes per call for the primary unit, rather than the total occupied minutes for all units assigned to a call. Observations below refer to times shown within the figure rather than the table.

Observations:
■ A unit's average time spent on a call ranged from 10 to 52 minutes overall. ■ The longest average times were for police-initiated suspicious incident calls. ■ The average time spent on crime calls was 46 minutes for community-initiated calls and 49 minutes for police-initiated calls.

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FIGURE 11-7: Number of Responding Units, by Initiator and Category

Note: The figure combines categories using weighted averages from the following table according to the description in Chart 11-1.

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TABLE 11-7: Average Number of Responding Units, by Initiator and Category Category Community-Initiated Police-Initiated
No. of Units Calls No. of Units Calls
Accident 2.7 913 2.8 212
Alarm 2.4 1,098 2.2 26
Animal 1.9 157 1.3 20
Assist other agency 2.9 428 2.6 197
Check 2.5 1,936 2.0 650
Crime–person 3.0 1,565 3.2 93
Crime–property 1.8 2,408 2.3 199
Disturbance 2.6 3,706 2.7 168
Follow-up 1.4 182 1.1 884
Investigation 2.1 540 2.2 852
Miscellaneous 1.9 607 2.0 1,340
Suspicious incident 2.9 1,363 3.2 169
Traffic enforcement 1.5 504 1.6 167
Traffic stop NA 0 2.0 2,936
Violation 2.4 378 1.3 85
Weighted Average/Total Calls 2.4 15,785 2.0 7,998
Note: The information in Figure 11-7 and Table 11-7 is limited to calls and excludes all events that show zero time on scene. Observations refer to the number of responding units shown within the figure rather than the table.

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FIGURE 11-8: Number of Responding Units, by Category, Community-initiated Calls

Note: The figure combines categories using weighted averages from the following table according to the description in Chart 11-1.

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TABLE 11-8: Number of Responding Units, by Category, Community-initiated Calls
Category Responding Units
One Two Three or More
Accident 199 269 445
Alarm 81 673 344
Animal 65 61 31
Assist other agency 40 138 250
Check 282 848 806
Crime–person 349 352 864
Crime–property 1,351 583 474
Disturbance 304 1,854 1,548
Follow-up 135 36 11
Investigation 245 132 163
Miscellaneous 270 222 115
Suspicious incident 128 582 653
Traffic enforcement 330 115 59
Violation 51 194 133
Total 3,830 6,059 5,896
Observations:
■ The overall mean number of responding units was 2.0 for police-initiated calls and 2.4 for community-initiated calls.
■ The mean number of responding units was as high as 3.2 for suspicious calls that were police - initiated.
■ 24 percent of community-initiated calls involved one responding unit. ■ 38 percent of community-initiated calls involved two responding units. ■ 37 percent of community-initiated calls involved three or more responding units. ■ 17 percent of community-initiated calls involved four or more responding units. ■ The largest group of calls with three or more responding units involved disturbances.

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FIGURE 11-9: Percentage Calls and Work Hours, by Beat

Note: The outside category included calls outside the city boundaries.

TABLE 11-9: Calls and Work Hours by Beat, per Day
Beat Per Day Area
(Sq. Miles)
Population
(2020) Calls Work Hours
20 17.2 16.0 1.1 8,786
21 22.1 22.4 2.1 24,561
23 13.0 14.1 1.8 14,751
24 9.7 8.6 1.7 7,760
HQ 0.6 0.5 NA NA
Outside 2.5 2.3 NA NA
Total 65.1 63.8 6.7 55,858
Observations:
■ Beat 21 had the most calls (22 per day) and workload (22 hours per day), and it accounted for 34 percent of total calls and 35 percent of total workload. ■ Excluding calls located at headquarter and missing beat information, an even distribution would allot 16 calls and 15 work hours per beat.

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FIGURE 11-10: Percentage Calls and Work Hours, by Category, Winter 2019

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TABLE 11-10: Calls and Work Hours per Day, by Category, Winter 2019 Category Per Day
Calls Work Hours
Accident 2.8 4.3
Alarm 2.8 1.2
Animal 0.5 0.4
Assist other agency 1.7 1.8
Check 5.6 5.0
Crime–person 3.9 7.9
Crime–property 7.6 8.8
Disturbance 9.7 10.6
Follow-up 3.1 1.3
Investigation 4.4 4.5
Miscellaneous 6.3 4.8
Suspicious incident 3.7 4.4
Traffic enforcement 1.9 0.6
Traffic stop 10.9 5.0
Violation 1.4 1.1
Total 66.2 61.9
Note: Workload calculations focused on calls rather than events.

Observations, Winter:
■ Total calls averaged 66 per day or 2.8 per hour.
■ Total workload averaged 62 hours per day, meaning that on average 2.6 units per hour were busy responding to calls.
■ Traffic calls constituted 24 percent of calls and 16 percent of workload. ■ Crime calls constituted 17 percent of calls and 27 percent of workload. ■ Disturbance calls constituted 15 percent of calls and 17 percent of workload. ■ These top three categories constituted 56 percent of calls and 60 percent of workload.

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FIGURE 11-11: Percentage Calls and Work Hours, by Category, Summer 2019

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TABLE 11-11: Calls and Work Hours per Day, by Category, Summer 2019 Category Per Day
Calls Work Hours
Accident 3.0 4.8
Alarm 3.4 1.6
Animal 0.5 0.4
Assist other agency 1.8 2.1
Check 7.8 7.0
Crime–person 5.2 9.9
Crime–property 7.8 8.7
Disturbance 12.2 13.9
Follow-up 3.1 1.4
Investigation 3.6 3.6
Miscellaneous 5.2 4.5
Suspicious incident 5.0 5.6
Traffic enforcement 2.0 1.4
Traffic stop 6.9 3.0
Violation 1.2 0.9
Total 68.9 68.8
Note: Workload calculations focused on calls rather than events.

Observations, Summer:
■ The average number of calls per day and the average daily workload were higher in summer than in winter.
■ Total calls averaged 69 per day or 2.9 per hour.
■ Total workload averaged 69 hours per day, meaning that on average 2.9 units per hour were busy responding to calls.
■ Traffic calls constituted 17 percent of calls and 13 percent of workload. ■ Crime calls constituted 19 percent of calls and 27 percent of workload. ■ Disturbance calls constituted 18 percent of calls and 20 percent of workload. ■ These top three categories constituted 54 percent of calls and 60 percent of workload.

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NONCALL ACTIVITIES
In the period from January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2019, the dispatch center recorded activities that were not assigned call numbers. We focused on those noncall activities that involved a patrol unit. Each record only indicates one unit per activity. There were a few problems with the data provided and we made assumptions and decisions to address these issues:
■ We excluded activities that lasted less than 30 seconds. These are irrelevant and contribute little to the overall workload.
■ Another portion of the recorded activities lasted more than eight hours. As an activity is unlikely to last more than eight hours, we assumed that these records were inaccurate. ■ After these exclusions, 4,963 activities remained. These activities had an average duration of 63 minutes.

In this section, we report out-of-service activities and workload by type of activity. In the next section, we include these activities in the overall workload when comparing the total workload against available personnel in winter and summer.

TABLE 11-12: Activities and Occupied Times by Description Status Description Occupied Time Count
OOS
Carwash 12.6 128
Code 7 38.1 85
Court 122.6 57
Follow-up 18.5 182
Paper 101.2 65
Special detail 51.2 36
Training 122.9 116
*Miscellaneous 57.8 213
At Station Miscellaneous 50.1 4
Unknown 63.8 4,077
Weighted Average/Total Activities 62.6 4,963
Note: The miscellaneous category included activities such as “out of city,” “equipment,” and “priority paper.” Observations:
■ The most common out-of-service activities were at station. ■ The average time spent on noncall activities was 62.6 minutes.

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FIGURE 11-12: Activities per Day, by Month

TABLE 11-13: Activities and Work Hours per Day, by Month Activities Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Count 13.9 14.9 14.0 12.9 13.6 11.2 13.3 15.5 15.9 11.0 13.1 13.9 Hours 14.8 17.7 14.3 12.5 14.5 11.4 12.4 15.2 16.2 12.8 14.4 14.2 Observations:
■ The number of activities per day was lowest in June and October. ■ The number of activities per day was highest in September.

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FIGURE 11-13: Activities per Day, by Day of Week

TABLE 11-14: Activities and Work Hours per Day, by Day of Week Day of Week Activities Hours
Sunday 13.2 12.6
Monday 17.8 22.2
Tuesday 13.8 15.4
Wednesday 11.6 11.0
Thursday 12.5 12.9
Friday 13.8 13.7
Saturday 12.6 11.4
Weekly Average 13.6 14.2
Observations:
■ The number of activities per day was lowest on Wednesdays. ■ The number of activities per day was highest on Mondays.

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FIGURE 11-14: Activities per Day, by Hour of Day

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TABLE 11-15: Activities and Minutes per Hour, by Hour of Day Hour Activities Minutes
0 0.2 16.9
1 0.2 15.4
2 0.3 19.1
3 0.2 14.2
4 0.2 13.0
5 0.4 34.0
6 1.3 84.6
7 0.5 40.8
8 0.5 31.7
9 0.3 13.9
10 0.4 23.5
11 0.4 32.2
12 0.7 48.8
13 1.5 111.3
14 1.5 74.4
15 1.0 42.7
16 0.5 27.8
17 0.3 16.4
18 0.3 19.6
19 0.4 22.2
20 0.7 50.2
21 0.7 47.3
22 0.4 26.0
23 0.6 25.0
Hourly Average 0.6 35.5
Observations:
■ The number of activities per hour was highest between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. ■ The number of activities per hour was lowest between 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.

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DEPLOYMENT
For this study, we examined deployment information for eight weeks in winter (January 4 through February 28, 2019) and eight weeks in summer (July 7 through August 31, 2019). The department’s main patrol force operated on 10-hour shifts starting at 6:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., and 9:00 p.m. The police department's main patrol force deployed an average of 7.9 units per hour during the 24-hour day in winter 2019 and an average of 7.7 units per hour in summer 2019.

In this section, we describe the deployment and workload in distinct steps, distinguishing between summer and winter and between weekdays (Monday through Friday) and weekends (Saturday and Sunday).
■ First, we focus on patrol deployment alone.
■ Next, we compare “all” workload, which includes community-initiated calls, police-initiated calls, directed patrol, and out-of-service activities.
■ Finally, we compare the workload against deployment by percentage.

Comments follow each set of four figures, with separate discussions for winter and summer.

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FIGURE 11-15: Deployed Units, Weekdays, Winter 2019

FIGURE 11-16: Deployed Units, Weekends, Winter 2019

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FIGURE 11-17: Deployed Units, Weekdays, Summer 2019

FIGURE 11-18: Deployed Units, Weekends, Summer 2019

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Observations:
■ For Winter (January 4 through February 28, 2019):
□ The average deployment was 8.0 units per hour during the week and 7.7 units per hour on the weekend.
□ Average deployment varied from 4.5 to 12.6 units per hour on weekdays and 5.2 to 12.5 units per hour on weekends.
■ For Summer (July 7 through August 31, 2019):
□ The average deployment was 7.7 units per hour during the week and 7.9 units per hour on the weekend.
□ Average deployment varied from 5.5 to 11.8 units per hour on weekdays and 5.6 to 13.3 units per hour on weekends.

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FIGURE 11-19: Deployment and All Workload, Weekdays, Winter 2019

FIGURE 11-20: Deployment and All Workload, Weekends, Winter 2019

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FIGURE 11-21: Deployment and All Workload, Weekdays, Summer 2019

FIGURE 11-22: Deployment and All Workload, Weekends, Summer 2019

Note: Figures 11-19 to 11-22 show deployment along with all workloads from community-initiated calls and police- initiated calls, directed patrol work, and out-of-service work.

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Observations:

Winter:
■ Community-initiated work:
□ Average community-initiated workload was 1.9 units per hour during the week and 1.9 units per hour on weekends.
□ This was approximately 24 percent of hourly deployment during the week and 25 percent of hourly deployment on weekends.
■ All work:
□ Average workload was 3.4 units per hour during the week and 3.3 units per hour on weekends.
□ This was approximately 43 percent of hourly deployment during the week and 43 percent of hourly deployment on weekends.

Summer:
■ Community-initiated work:
□ Average community-initiated workload was 2.2 units per hour during the week and 2.3 units per hour on weekends.
□ This was approximately 29 percent of hourly deployment during the week and 30 percent of hourly deployment on weekends.
■ All work:
□ Average workload was 3.6 units per hour during the week and 3.7 units per hour on weekends.
□ This was approximately 46 percent of hourly deployment during the week and 48 percent of hourly deployment on weekends.

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FIGURE 11-23: Percentage of Workload, Weekdays, Winter 2019

FIGURE 11-24: Percentage of Workload, Weekends, Winter 2019

136
FIGURE 11-25: Percentage of Workload, Weekdays, Summer 2019

FIGURE 11-26: Percentage of Workload, Weekends, Summer 2019

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Observations:

Winter:
■ Community-initiated work:
□ During the week, workload reached a maximum of 39 percent of deployment between 8:15 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
□ On weekends, workload reached a maximum of 46 percent of deployment between 6:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.
■ All work:
□ During the week, workload reached a maximum of 55 percent of deployment between 11:45 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.
□ On weekends, workload reached a maximum of 63 percent of deployment between 6:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Summer:
■ Community-initiated work:
□ During the week, workload reached a maximum of 44 percent of deployment between 6:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.
□ On weekends, workload reached a maximum of 44 percent of deployment between 5:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. and between 6:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. ■ All work:
□ During the week, workload reached a maximum of 59 percent of deployment between 6:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. and between 7:45 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. □ On weekends, workload reached a maximum of 64 percent of deployment between 8:15 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

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RESPONSE TIMES
We analyzed the response times to various types of calls, separating the duration into dispatch processing and travel time, to determine whether response times varied by call type. Response time is measured as the difference between when a call is received and when the first unit arrives on scene. This is further divided into dispatch processing and travel time. Dispatch processing is the time between when a call is received and when the first unit is dispatched.

Travel time is the remaining time until the first unit arrives on scene.

We begin the discussion with statistics that include all calls combined. We started with 3,715 calls for winter and 3,864 calls for summer. We limited our analysis to community-initiated calls, which amounted to 2,283 calls for winter and 2,693 calls for summer. Also, we removed a few calls lacking a recorded arriving unit and calls located at headquarters. We were left with 2,123 calls in winter and 2,502 calls in summer for our analysis. For the entire year, we began with 23,783 calls, limiting our analysis to 15,785 community-initiated calls. With similar exclusions, we were left with 14,689 calls.

Our initial analysis does not distinguish calls based on priority; instead, it examines the difference in response to all calls by time of day and compares the winter and summer periods. We then present a brief analysis of response time for high-priority calls alone.

139
All Calls
This section looks at all calls without considering their priorities. In addition to examining the differences in response times by both time of day and season (winter v ersus summer), we show differences in response times by category.

FIGURE 11-27: Average Response Times, by Hour of Day, Winter and Summer 2019

Observations:
■ Average response times varied significantly by the hour of the day. ■ In winter, the longest response times were between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., with an average of 24.1 minutes.
■ In winter, the shortest response times were between 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m., with an average of 13.2 minutes.
■ In summer, the longest response times were between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., with an average of 27.4 minutes.
■ In summer, the shortest response times were between 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a .m., with an average of 10.5 minutes.

140
FIGURE 11-28: Average Response Time by Category, Winter 2019

FIGURE 11-29: Average Response Time by Category, Summer 2019

141
TABLE 11-16: Average Response Time Components, by Category Category
Winter Summer
Minutes Count Minutes Count Dispatch Travel Response Dispatch Travel Response Accident 6.6 3.7 10.3 124 6.4 4.2 10.5 127
Alarm 6.0 4.4 10.4 139 7.1 4.1 11.2 177
Animal 10.3 5.2 15.4 22 16.0 5.2 21.2 28
Assist other agency 6.3 3.0 9.2 58 5.2 4.0 9.3 73
Check 12.6 4.6 17.2 206 13.5 5.1 18.6 291
Crime–person 10.0 5.3 15.3 198 13.7 5.8 19.5 256
Crime–property 21.0 7.8 28.9 358 21.5 7.9 29.4 377
Disturbance 16.3 4.5 20.8 514 16.1 4.5 20.6 620
Follow-up 23.2 3.4 26.6 18 27.2 8.0 35.1 28
Investigation 17.8 7.7 25.5 85 23.0 8.5 31.5 72
Miscellaneous 15.1 6.3 21.4 89 15.2 6.1 21.3 86
Suspicious incident 14.7 4.2 18.9 187 11.5 3.9 15.5 241 Traffic enforcement 31.7 5.0 36.7 61 25.8 7.2 33.1 69 Violation 17.7 4.0 21.8 64 16.6 4.2 20.7 57
Total Average 15.0 5.2 20.2 2,123 15.0 5.4 20.4 2,502 Note: The total average is weighted according to the number of calls per category.

Observations:
■ In winter, the average response time for most categories was between 9 minutes and 24 minutes.
■ In winter, the average response time was as short as 9 minutes (for assists) and as long as 25 minutes (for investigations).
■ In summer, the average response time for most categories was between 9 minutes and 26 minutes.
■ In summer, the average response time was as short as 9 minutes (for assist) and as long as 31 minutes (for investigation).
■ The average response time for crimes was 24 minutes in winter and 25 minutes in summer.

142
TABLE 11-17: 90th Percentiles for Response Time Components, by Category Category
Winter Summer
Minutes Minutes
Dispatch Travel Response Dispatch Travel Response
Accident 14.7 6.5 17.7 14.7 7.6 23.7
Alarm 13.0 8.0 17.8 13.3 6.9 20.2
Animal 24.9 8.3 31.2 34.8 9.1 39.0
Assist other agency 22.0 5.1 23.8 8.8 7.1 15.3
Check 33.8 8.1 40.4 37.1 8.4 45.8
Crime–person 28.0 8.8 36.9 44.9 10.5 56.7
Crime–property 58.2 18.2 69.6 61.2 17.3 76.8
Disturbance 44.8 8.2 48.7 45.7 7.9 52.9
Follow-up 62.3 7.3 65.5 95.3 18.4 103.7
Investigation 54.8 16.0 71.3 57.7 22.6 86.2
Miscellaneous 42.2 11.9 54.7 46.6 10.9 56.7
Suspicious incident 41.7 7.6 46.9 31.4 7.7 36.7
Traffic enforcement 98.4 10.5 98.6 85.8 22.0 92.6
Violation 31.4 7.4 37.7 45.7 6.8 47.8
Total 43.5 10.1 50.0 42.8 10.2 52.7
Note: A 90th percentile value of 37.7 minutes means that 90 percent of all calls are responded to in fewer than

37.7 minutes. For this reason, the columns for dispatch processing and travel time may not be equal to the total response time.

Observations:
■ In winter, the 90th percentile value for response time was as short as 18 minutes (for alarm s) and as long as 71 minutes (for investigations).
■ In summer, the 90th percentile value for response time was as short as 15 minutes (for assists) and as long as 86 minutes (for investigations).

143
FIGURE 11-30: Average Response Time Components, by Beat

TABLE 11-18: Average Response Time Components, by Beat
Beat Minutes Calls Area
(Sq. Miles)
Population
(2020) Dispatch Travel Response
20 15.6 4.4 19.9 3,287 1.1 8,786
21 17.0 5.5 22.5 5,600 2.1 24,561
23 17.9 6.6 24.5 3,200 1.8 14,751
24 15.7 5.3 20.9 2,336 1.7 7,760
Outside 13.6 6.9 20.5 275 NA NA
Total 16.6 5.5 22.1 14,689 6.7 55,858
Observations:
■ Excluding calls outside National City, beat 20 had the shortest average dispatch processing time, which was about 15.6 minutes.
■ Excluding calls outside National City, beat 20 had the shortest average response time, which was about 19.9 minutes.

144
High-priority Calls
The department assigns priorities to calls with priorities "P1 EMERGENCY" and "P2 URGENT" as the highest priorities. Table 11-19 shows average response times by priority. Also, we identified the majority of injury accidents based upon their call descriptions, "11-81 ACCIDENT MINOR INJURY,” “20001 HIT & RUN W/INJURY,” “20001R HIT & RUN W/INJURY RPT,” “11-80 ACCIDENT MAJOR INJURY,” and “11-81R ACCIDENT MINOR INJ RPT,” to see if these provided an alternate measure for emergency calls.

TABLE 11-19: Average and 90th Percentile Response Times, by Priority Priority Minutes Calls 90th Percentile,
Minutes Dispatch Travel Response
P1 EMERGENCY 2.1 3.2 5.3 693 8.4
P2 URGENT 5.0 4.3 9.3 3,768 17.0
P3 SERIOUS 15.9 5.4 21.3 6,105 49.0
P4 NON-URGENT 31.1 7.2 38.3 3,319 101.6
P5 SELF-INITIATED/OTHER 29.2 6.1 35.4 804 98.5
Total 16.6 5.5 22.1 14,689 58.3
Injury accident 5.3 3.6 9.0 126 14.8
Note: The total average is weighted according to the number of calls within each priority level.

145
FIGURE 11-31: Average Response and Dispatch Processing Times for High-priority Calls, by Hour

Observations:
■ The average response time was 5.3 minutes for P1 calls and 9.3 minutes for P2 calls. This was lower than the overall average of 22.1 minutes for all calls. ■ The average dispatch delay was 2.1 minutes for P1 calls and 5.0 minutes for P2 calls. This was lower than 16.6 minutes overall.
■ For P1 calls, the longest response times were between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., with an average of 8.3 minutes.
■ For P2 calls, the longest response times were between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., with an average of 12.9 minutes.
■ For P1 calls, the shortest response times were between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m., with an average of 3.8 minutes.
■ For P2 calls, the shortest response times were between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m., with an average of 7.0 minutes.

146
APPENDIX A: CALL TYPE CLASSIFICATION
Call descriptions for the department’s calls for service from January 1, 2019 , to December 31, 2019, were classified into the following categories.

TABLE 11-20: Call Type, by Category
Call Type Code Table Category Figure Category
211A ROBBERY ALARM
Alarm Alarm 459A AUDIBLE BURG ALARM
459S SILENT BURG ALARM

ASSIST OTHER AGENCY COVER NOW
Assist other agency Assist

ASSIST OTHER AGENCY NON-URGENT

ASSIST OTHER AGENCY URGENT

FIRE OTHER

FIRE STRUCTURE

FIRE VEHICLE

MEDICAL

MEDICAL TRANSFER

OTHER AGENCY DETAIL

OVERDOSE
11-11 CHECK THE AREA
Check Check

BAR CHECK

BEAT INFORMATION

CHECK THE WELFARE NON-URGENT

CHECK THE WELFARE URGENT

CITIZEN FLAG

DRIVEBY REQUEST

SECURITY CHECK
11550 UNDER INFLUENCE
Crime–person Crime
166 VIOLATION OF CT ORDER
166R VIOLATION OF CT ORDER RPT
207 KIDNAPPING
207R KIDNAPPING REPORT
211 ROBBERY STRONG ARM
215 CARJACKING
220R SEXUAL ASSAULT REPORT
23152 DRIVING UNDER INFLUENCE
242 BATTERY
242R BATTERY REPORT
243.4 BATTERY SEXUAL
243.4R BATTERY SEXUAL REPORT
243E1R DOMESTIC DISPUTE REPORT
243R BATTERY W/INJURY REPORT
245 ASSAULT W/DEADLY WEAPON

147
Call Type Code Table Category Figure Category
245R ASSAULT W/DEADLY WPN RPT
246 SHOOT AT DWELL/VEHICLE
246R SHOOT AT DWELL/VEH RPT
261 RAPE
261R RAPE REPORT
273.5 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
273.5R DOMESTIC VIOLENCE RPT
273.6 VIOLATION OF DVRO
273.6R VIOLATION OF DVRO RPT
273a CHILD ABUSE/NEGLECT
273aR CHILD ABUSE/NEGLECT RPT
288 LEWD ACT AGAINST CHILD
288R LEWD ACT AGAINST CHILD RP
311R CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
314 INDECENT EXPOSURE
314R INDECENT EXPOSURE REPORT
368 ELDER/DEP ADULT ABUSE
368R ELDER/DEP AD ABUSE RT
415 DV-VIOLENT
415 FIGHT
415 VIOLENT
417 BRANDISHING WEAPON
417R BRANDISHING WEAPON REPORT
422 CRIMINAL THREATS
422R CRIMINAL THREATS REPORT
459 HOT PROWL
518R EXTORTION REPORT
646 STALKING
646R STALKING REPORT
647.6 ANNOY/MOLEST CHILD
647.6R ANNOY/MOLEST CHILD RPT
647b PROSTITUTION
653M ANNOYING PHONE CALL
BOMB THREAT 148.1
10851 RECOVERY
Crime–property
10851 REPORT
10851 STOLEN VEHICLE
10852 VEHICLE TAMPERING
211 ROBBERY
211 ROBBERY ARMED
211R ROBBERY REPORT
23110 THROW OBJECT AT VEH

148
Call Type Code Table Category Figure Category
23110R THROW OBJ A/VEH RPT
451 ARSON
459 CASER
459C BURGLARY COMMERCIAL
459CR BURGLARY COMMERCIAL RPT
459R BURGLARY RESIDENTIAL
459RR BURGLARY RESIDENTIAL RPT
459V BURGLARY VEHICLE
459VR BURGLARY VEHICLE REPORT
470 FORGERY/FRAUD
470R FORGERY/FRAUD REPORT
476R NSF CHECKS REPORT
487 GRAND THEFT
487R GRAND THEFT REPORT
488 PETTY THEFT
488R PETTY THEFT REPORT
496 POSSESSION STOLEN PROPERTY
503R EMBEZZLEMENT REPORT
530R IDENTITY THEFT REPORT
537 DEFRAUDING INNKEEPER
537R DEFRAUDING INNKEEPER RPT
594 VANDALISM/MAL MISCHIEF
594R VANDALISM/MAL MISCHIEF RT

NARCOTICS ACTIVITY

SHOPLIFTER
11-86 SPECIAL DETAIL
Directed patrol Directed patrol EXTRA PATROL

PRESERVE THE PEACE
RANGE USE 10-19
415 CIVIL
Disturbance Disturbance
415 DRINKING IN PUBLIC
415 DV-VERBAL
415 FAMILY
415 GROUP
415 MUSIC
415 NEIGHBORS
415 NOISE
415 OTHER
415 PARTY
415 REFUSING TO LEAVE
415 SUBJECT
415 VERBAL

149
Call Type Code Table Category Figure Category
5150 MENTAL SUBJECT
5150 VIOLENT MENTAL SUBJECT
647F DRUNK IN PUBLIC

FIREWORKS

PANHANDLING

ANIMAL AT LARGE
Animal
General noncriminal

ANIMAL ATTACK IN PROGRESS

ANIMAL BITE REPORT

ANIMAL OTHER REPORT

ANIMAL ROUTINE

ANIMAL VICIOUS/INJURED/SICK
FOLLOW-UP Follow-up
10-16 ARREST
Miscellaneous
10-87 MEET OFFICER
11-48 TRANSPORT
911 CELL INCOMPLETE
911 DISCONNECT
911 LE AGENCY TRANSFER
911 MISUSE

ATTEMPT TO CONTACT

ATTEMPT TO LOCATE

BE ON THE LOOKOUT

CALL TAKING IN PROGRESS
HAZARD

MISCELLANEOUS

PROPERTY RELINQUISH

PUBLIC WORKS CALL OUT

REPOSSESSION

RUNAWAY JUVENILE

SELF INITIATED

TARASOFF NOTIFICATION

TICKET SIGN OFF
TRUANT

UTILITY NOTIFICATION

VEHICLE LOCK OUT
11-44 DEATH REPORT
Investigation Investigation
11-50 FIELD INTERVIEW

ADULT FOUND

ADULT LOST
C5 SURVEILLANCE
C6 STAY OUT OF THE AREA

CHILD FOUND

150
Call Type Code Table Category Figure Category

CHILD LOST

MISSING PERSON

MISSING PERSON AT RISK

MP/RAJ RECOVERY

PROPERTY FOUND

PROPERTY LOST

UNKNOWN PROBLEM
TRAINING/TEST Out of service–administrative Out of service 11-45 THREAT/ATTEMPT/SUICIDE
Suspicious incident Suspicious
11-6 SHOTS FIRED
11-7 PROWLER
11-8 PERSON DOWN

LOITERING

PURSUIT

SUBJECT WITH A GUN

SUBJECT WITH A WEAPON

SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES

SUSPICIOUS SUBJECT

SUSPICIOUS VEHICLE

WANTED SUBJECT
11-80 ACCIDENT MAJOR INJURY
Accident
Traffic
11-81 ACCIDENT MINOR INJURY
11-81R ACCIDENT MINOR INJ RPT
11-82 ACCIDENT NON-INJURY
11-83 ACCIDENT NO DETAIL
20001 HIT & RUN W/INJURY
20001R HIT & RUN W/INJURY RPT
20002 HIT & RUN NON-INJURY
20002R HIT & RUN NON-INJ RT

ACCIDENT DRIVERS REPORT
11-84 TRAFFIC CONTROL
Traffic enforcement
11-88 STALLED VEHICLE
23103 RECKLESS DRIVER

ABANDONED VEHICLE

DUI CHECK POINT

LOST OR STOLEN PLATES

PARKING COMPLAINT
TRAFFIC STOP Traffic stop
602 TRESPASSING
Violation Violation 602R TRESPASSING REPORT

IMPOUND PD

IMPOUND PRIVATE

151
APPENDIX B: CALLS EXCLUDED FROM STUDY
According to records obtained from CAD, National City PD was associated with 67,438 calls in 2019. Of these, 26,043 events were recorded with at least one patrol unit. In other words, 41,395 calls were excluded from our analysis.

Some of these calls (7,004) had a responding NCPD unit that was not part of the patrol force, 474 calls had responding units but lacked adequate unit information, for a total of 7,478 calls.

TABLE 11-21: All Excluded Calls
Summary of Calls Excluded Count Percentage
No Incident Number Assigned 6,434 16
No Dispatched Units 27,485 66
Only Nonpatrol Units Responded 7,004 17
Missing or Inaccurate Unit Time Stamps 472 1
All Calls Excluded from Study 41,395 100

We examined the call records for the 33,917 calls without dispatched units more closely. We found that all 33,917 calls had no first unit assign, en route, or arrival time recorded within the call record.

TABLE 11-22: Calls Without Units, By Cancel Reason
Cancel Reason Count Cumulative Percentage
BY DISPATCHER REQUEST 24,958 91
BY RP REQUEST 1,870 98
BY SUPERVISOR REQUEST 328 99
BY OFFICER REQUEST 317 100
Other* 11 100
Total 27,485 100
Note: *These 11 calls include an additional 3 different cancel reasons.

152
TABLE 11-23: Calls with Only Nonpatrol Units, By Description Call Type Count Cumulative
Percentage
TRAFFIC STOP 1,137 16
ANIMAL ROUTINE 755 27
REPOSSESSION 727 37
PARKING COMPLAINT 715 48
IMPOUND PRIVATE 680 57
11-86 SPECIAL DETAIL 561 65
SELF-INITIATED 498 72
FOLLOW-UP 357 78
11-50 FIELD INTERVIEW 227 81
LOST OR STOLEN PLATES 94 82
ANIMAL AT LARGE 75 83
Other* 1,178 100
Total 7,004 100
Note: *These 1,178 calls include an additional 114 different call descriptions. Within this group, the most frequent type accounts for less than 1 percent of the total 7,004 calls.

TABLE 11-24: Calls with Only Nonpatrol Units, By Unit Type Unit Type Responses Cumulative
Percentage
GANG ENFORCEMENT 1,707 20
DISPATCH 1,540 37
TRAFFIC 1,268 52
ANIMAL CONTROL 946 63
PARKING ENFORCEMENT 806 72
DETECTIVE 674 80
TOW 536 86
COMMUNITY SERVICE OFFICER 438 91
SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER 298 94
EITHER GANG OR HOMELESS 128 96
HOMELESS OUTREACH TEAM 128 97
Other* 261 100
Total 8,730 100
Note: *These 261 responses include an additional 15 different unit types. Within this group, the most frequent type accounts for less than 1 percent of the total 8,730 responses.

153
APPENDIX C: WORKLOAD BY SEASON, 2020
FIGURE 11-32: Deployment and All Workload, Weekdays, Winter 2020

FIGURE 11-33: Deployment and All Workload, Weekends, Winter 2020

154
FIGURE 11-34: Deployment and All Workload, Weekdays, Summer 2020

FIGURE 11-35: Deployment and All Workload, Weekends, Summer 2020

155
Winter (January 4 through February 28, 2020):
■ Community-initiated work:
□ Average community-initiated workload was 2.1 units per hour during the week and 2.4 units per hour on weekends.
□ This was approximately 28 percent of hourly deployment during the week and 32 pe rcent of hourly deployment on weekends.
■ All work:
□ Average workload was 3.5 units per hour during the week and 3.4 units per hour on weekends.
□ This was approximately 46 percent of hourly deployment during the week and 47 percent of hourly deployment on weekends.

Summer (July 7 through August 31, 2020):
■ Community-initiated work:
□ Average community-initiated workload was 2.0 units per hour during the week and 2.2 units per hour on weekends.
□ This was approximately 28 percent of hourly deployment during the week and 29 percent of hourly deployment on weekends.
■ All work:
□ Average workload was 3.4 units per hour during the week and 3.4 units per hour on weekends.
□ This was approximately 46 percent of hourly deployment during the week and 45 percent of hourly deployment on weekends.

156
FIGURE 11-36: Percentage of Workload, Weekdays, Winter 2020

FIGURE 11-37: Percentage of Workload, Weekends, Winter 2020

157
FIGURE 11-38: Percentage of Workload, Weekdays, Summer 2020

FIGURE 11-39: Percentage of Workload, Weekends, Summer 2020

158
Observations:

Winter:
■ Community-initiated work:
□ During the week, workload reached a maximum of 42 percent of deployment between 6:15 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.
□ On weekends, workload reached a maximum of 57 percent of deployment between 7:45 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
■ All work:
□ During the week, workload reached a maximum of 59 percent of deployment between 2:15 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.
□ On weekends, workload reached a maximum of 75 percent of deployment between 7:45 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.

Summer:
■ Community-initiated work:
□ During the week, workload reached a maximum of 45 percent of deployment between 6:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. and between 7:00 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. □ On weekends, workload reached a maximum of 44 percent of deployment between 12:45 a.m. and 1:00 a.m. and between 11:00 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. ■ All work:
□ During the week, workload reached a maximum of 63 percent of deployment between 12:45 p.m. and 1:15 p.m.
□ On weekends, workload reached a maximum of 60 percent of deployment between 8:45 a.m. and 9:15 a.m.

159
APPENDIX D: UNIFORM CRIME REPORT INFORMATION
This section presents information obtained from Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The tables and figures include the most recent information that is publicly available at the national level. This includes crime reports for 201 1 through 2020, along with clearance rates for 2020. Crime rates are expressed as incidents per 100,000 population.

TABLE 11-25: Reported Crime Rates in 2020, by City
Municipality State Population Crime Rates
Violent Property Total
Carlsbad California 116,516 192 1,580 1,772
Chula Vista California 278,027 329 1,171 1,501
Coronado California 23,750 72 1,124 1,196
El Cajon California 103,035 497 1,792 2,289
Escondido California 152,446 373 1,769 2,142
La Mesa California 59,488 304 1,742 2,046
Oceanside California 176,616 406 1,801 2,206
San Diego California 1,437,608 369 1,692 2,061
San Diego County Sheriff California 908,834 158 428 586 Richmond California 111,367 964 3,303 4,268
National City California 61,710 569 1,880 2,449
California 39,538,223 442 2,139 2,581
National 331,449,281 399 1,958 2,357

160
FIGURE 11-40: Reported National City Violent and Property Crime Rates, by Year

FIGURE 11-41: Reported City and State Crime Rates, by Year

0 500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Violent Property
0 500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
National City California

161
TABLE 11-26: Reported National City, California, and National Crime Rates, by Year Year National City California National
Population Violent Property Total Population Violent Property Total Population Violent Property Total 2011 59,271 628 3,061 3,688 37,819,249 410 2,574 2,983 317,186,963 376 2,800 3,176 2012 59,920 619 3,109 3,728 38,183,375 421 2,747 3,169 319,697,368 377 2,758 3,135 2013 59,637 527 3,169 3,696 38,498,377 394 2,646 3,041 321,947,240 362 2,627 2,989 2014 60,130 444 2,643 3,087 38,970,399 389 2,430 2,819 324,699,246 357 2,464 2,821 2015 60,768 538 2,384 2,923 39,315,550 424 2,605 3,029 327,455,769 368 2,376 2,744 2016 61,550 434 2,236 2,669 39,421,283 443 2,541 2,984 329,308,297 383 2,353 2,736 2017 61,574 481 1,879 2,360 39,536,653 449 2,497 2,946 325,719,178 383 2,362 2,745 2018 61,763 495 1,889 2,384 39,557,045 447 2,380 2,828 327,167,434 369 2,200 2,568 2019 61,791 589 1,817 2,406 39,959,095 434 2,290 2,724 328,239,523 379 2,010 2,489 2020 61,710 569 1,880 2,449 39,538,223 442 2,139 2,581 331,449,281 399 1,958 2,357

TABLE 11-27: Reported National City, California, and National Crime Clearance Rates Crime National City California National
Crimes Clearances Rate Crimes Clearances Rate Crimes Clearances* Rate Murder Manslaughter 4 2 50% 2,202 1,296 59% 18,109 9,851 54% Rape 19 2 11% 12,641 4,673 37% 110,095 33,689 31% Robbery 99 40 40% 44,684 14,816 33% 209,643 60,377 29% Aggravated Assault 229 118 52% 113,539 57,868 51% 799,678 371,051 46% Burglary 139 17 12% 145,377 17,229 12% 898,176 125,745 14% Larceny 760 85 11% 527,748 45,114 9% 4,004,124 604,623 15% Vehicle Theft 261 22 8% 168,046 15,800 9% 727,045 89,427 12% Note: *Clearances were calculated from crimes and clearance rates, as these numbers are not directly available from the FBI.

END

ENHANCED MINIMUM STAFFING PILOT PROGRAM
4/18/2023

PURPOSE

Seek authorization of an Enhanced Staffing Pilot Program designed to enhance public safety and the efficiency of the Fire Department by implementing a 4-person Engine Company response model.

BACKGROUND

In 2009, National City retained Citygate Associates LLC to conduct a Standards of Response Analysis for the City. This comprehensive analysis provided several recommendations for emergency service delivery improvements, which included increasing daily staffing. (See Appendix A - Citygate Executive Summary- Recommendation #4)

In 2022, the City of National City retained the services of Center for Public Safety Management LLC (CPSM) to complete an analysis of the city’s Fire Department, EMS ground transport service, and fire dispatch services. This comprehensive analysis provided several recommendations for emergency service delivery improvements, once again recommending an increase to daily staffing (See Appendix B - CPSM Executive Summary).

Using the CPSM study as a reference, in the year 2020 the Fire Department responded to 8,923 calls for service. This number represents an increase of 55% since the 2009 Citygate study with no increase to fire department staffing levels.

RECOMENDATIONS

Included in the Fire department analysis, CPSM recommends that the city develop a plan to implement a 4-person Engine Company response model on Engine 34 and Engine 31 due to the following factors:

 Demand for service
 Population density that includes substantial current and projected vertical density structures, many involving assisted and/or senior living
 Building and other risks identified in the report such as:
• The San Diego Port property
• Industrial and commercial properties that include heavy rail and tractor-trailer transportation • Proposed industrial and commercial properties
 The resiliency issues caused by marked increases in demand for service  Ability to assemble an Effective Firefighting/Response Force (See Appendix C - NIST Report on Residential Fireground Field Experiments)

2 IMPLEMENTATION

In an effort to adopt the recommendations of the CPSM’s Fire Department analysis, staff recommends the Fire Department begin an Enhanced Staffing Pilot Program.

On April 18, 2023 (or upon Council approval):

• Addition of one (1) Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Firefighter on each of the three (3) operational shifts increasing on-duty operational staffing to fourteen (14) personnel per day. • These 3 additional FTE’s are currently included in the FY23 Fire budget and proposed FY24 Budget.
• Offset funding is provided through an existing SAFER Grant through March of 2024.

• The expected cost of the Enhanced Staffing Pilot Program to the Fire Department budget during the period (March 9, 2024-June 30, 2024), is expected to be in the range of $139,313.00 (table.2)
• The range takes into account personnel cost not covered by the SAFER Grant and predicted use of leave (Sick leave with pay, Vacation, injury leave, etc.)

• The Fire Department will maintain management rights regarding staffing as outlined in the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City of National City and the National City Firefighters’ Association (January 1, 2022 - December 21, 2024)

FY24/25:

• FY24/25 Fire Budget to include three (3) additional FTE Firefighters previously funded by SAFER Grant.

• The cost to the FY24/25 Fire Budget is expected to be in the range of $485,000 to $514,000 (table. 3)
• This range takes into account predicted salary, salary increases and leave costs.

• These three (3) additional FTE’s increase the number of General Funded Firefighters to 18.

• Additional SAFER Grant funding is currently being explored.

3 SCOPE OF ENHANCED STAFFING PILOT PROGRAM

The Fire Department has three operational shifts A, B, and C. Each shift is staffed by 5 Firefighters, 3 Engineers, 4 Captains, and 1 Battalion Chief, for an on-duty operational response force of 13 personnel.

On April 18 2023, 1 Firefighter will be added to E34 on each of the three operational shifts, A, B, and C, thereby increasing on-duty operational staffing by 1 to a total of 14 personnel- (6 Firefighters per operational shift)-(table 1)

A Shift (24-Hour) Shift) B Shift (24-Hour) Shift) C Shift (24-Hour) Shift) B57 B57 B57
■ 1 Battalion Chief ■ 1 Battalion Chief ■ 1 Battalion Chief E34 E34 E34
■ 1 Captain ■ 1 Captain ■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Engineer ■ 1 Engineer ■ 1 Engineer
■ 1 Firefighter ■ 1 Firefighter ■ 1 Firefighter
■ 1 Firefighter ■ 1 Firefighter ■ 1 Firefighter
T34 T34 T34
■ 1 Captain ■ 1 Captain ■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Engineer ■ 1 Engineer ■ 1 Engineer
■ 1 Firefighter ■ 1 Firefighter ■ 1 Firefighter
■ 1 Firefighter ■ 1 Firefighter ■ 1 Firefighter
E31 E31 E31
■ 1 Captain ■ 1 Captain ■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Engineer ■ 1 Engineer ■ 1 Engineer
■ 1 Firefighter ■ 1 Firefighter ■ 1 Firefighter ■ ■ ■
Squad 33 Squad 33 Squad 33
■ 1 Captain ■ 1 Captain ■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Firefighter ■ 1 Firefighter ■ 1 Firefighter
(table 1)

4 FISCAL IMPACT
As presented, the Enhanced Staffing Pilot Program will result in the following ongoing costs:

FY23/24 Fire Budget (General Fund) Cost-
* Staffing costs encumbered by the city as a result of the 5 SAFER Grant funded positions expiring in March 2024
Personnel (4-person Engine Company, Engine 34)
 Personnel cost not covered by Safer Grant – $37,020 x 3 $111,060.00  Predicted use of leave– $9,417 x 3 $ 28,253.00
* Total cost to increase GF Budgeted FF positions to 18 $139,313.00 (table 2)
FY24/25 Fire Budget (General Fund) Costs
(table 3)

GOALS OF THE ENHANCED STAFFING PILOT PROGRAM
• Enhance service delivery and improve efficiency to the residents of National City • Increase ability to complete critical tasking elements for specific incident responses • Improve cardiac arrest survivability rates by decreasing patient down time prior to initiation of life saving interventions. (See Appendix D - NIST Report on EMS Field Experiments) • Maintain and enhance public satisfaction with the service delivery of our Fire Department • Increase Department resiliency (ability to handle more than one incident at a time) • Assembling of an effective response force
• Reduce overall workload on the workforce
• Increase minimum daily staffing from 13 to 14 Firefighters • Provide 14 National City Firefighters on first alarm responses in National City Personnel (4-person Engine Company, Engine 34)
 1- Firefighter/Paramedic – $167,452
 1- Firefighter/Paramedic – $167,452
 1- Firefighter/EMT – $149,773
 Predicted use of leave– $29,100
Total Cost to General Fund for FY25 $513,777.00
• These three (3) additional FTE’s increase the number of General Funded Firefighters to 18.

APPENDIX A

CENTER FOR PUBLIC SAFETY MANAGEMENT, LLC
475 K STREET NW, STE. 702 • WASHINGTON, DC 20001
WWW.CPSM.US • 716-969-1360

FIRE & EMS SERVICES

ANALYSIS REPORT
National City, C alifornia
Final Report-August 2022

Exclusive Provider of Public Safety Technical Services for International City/County Management Association

C E N T E R F O R P U B L I C S A F E T Y M A N A G E M E N T , L L C

APPENDIX B

i

THE ASSOCIATION & THE COMPANY
The International City/County Management Association is a 103-year old, nonprofit professional association of local government administrators and managers, with approximately 13,000 members located in 32 countries.

Since its inception in 1914, ICMA has been dedicated to assisting local governments and their managers in providing services to its citizens in an efficient and effective manner.

ICMA advances the knowledge of local government best practices with its webs ite (www.icma.org), publications, research, professional development, and membership. The ICMA Center for Public Safety Management (ICMA/CPSM) was launched by ICMA to provide support to local governments in the areas of police, fire, and emergency medical services.

ICMA also represents local governments at the federal level and has been involved in numerous projects with the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.

In 2014, as part of a restructuring at ICMA, the Center for Public Safety Management (CPSM) was spun out as a separate company. It is now the exclusive provider of public safety technical assistance for ICMA. CPSM provides training and research for the Association’s members and represents ICMA in its dealings with the federal government and other public safety professional associations such as CALEA, PERF, IACP, IFCA, IPMA-HR, DOJ, BJA, COPS, NFPA, and others.

The Center for Public Safety Management, LLC, maintains the same team of individuals performing the same level of service as when it was a component of ICMA. CPSM’s local government technical assistance experience includes workload and deployment analysis using our unique methodology and subject matter experts to examine department organizational structure and culture, identify workload and staffing needs, and align department operations with industry best practices. We have conducted 341 such studies in 42 states and provinces and 246 communities ranging in population from 8,000 (Boone, Iowa) to 800,000 (Indianapolis, Ind.).

Thomas Wieczorek is the Director of the Center for Public Safety Management.

Leonard Matarese serves as the Director of Research & Program Development. Dr. Dov Chelst is the Director of Quantitative Analysis.

ii

CENTER FOR PUBLIC SAFETY MANAGEMENT

PROJECT CONTRIBUTORS
Thomas J. Wieczorek, Director
Leonard A. Matarese, Director, Research & Project Development Dov Chelst, Ph.D. Director of Quantitative Analysis
Joseph E. Pozzo, Senior Manager
Matt Zavadsky, Senior Associate
James L. Mauney, Associate
David Martin, GIS Analyst
Sarah Weadon, GIS Analyst
Xianfeng Li, Data Analyst
Dennis Kouba, Senior Editor

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CONTENTS
Tables ............................................................................................................................ vi Figures ........................................................................................................................... ix Section 1. Executive Summary .................................................................................... 1 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................. 3 Section 2. Agency Review and Characteristics......................................................... 5 Department Overview and Organizational Structure ........................................................................ 5 Service Area ............................................................................................................................................ 9 NCFD Budget and Capital Assets ....................................................................................................... 11 Capital Assets .................................................................................................................................... 11 Training Programs .................................................................................................................................. 16 Community Risk Reduction Programs ................................................................................................ 18 Section 3. All-Hazards Risk Assessment of the Community .................................... 22 Community Risks.................................................................................................................................... 22 Population and Community Growth .............................................................................................. 22 Environmental Factors ...................................................................................................................... 23 Building and Target Hazards ............................................................................................................ 25 Transportation Factors ...................................................................................................................... 29 Port of San Diego .............................................................................................................................. 30 Fire and Fire-Related Risk ................................................................................................................. 32 EMS Risk .............................................................................................................................................. 33 Fire and EMS Incident Demand .......................................................................................................... 34 ISO Rating .............................................................................................................................................. 39 Community Loss and Save Information ............................................................................................. 42 Automatic-Mutual Aid .......................................................................................................................... 42 Resiliency................................................................................................................................................ 47 Risk Categorization ............................................................................................................................... 51 Section 4. Staffing, Deployment, and Performance ................................................ 59 NFPA 1710 and Two-In/Two-Out .......................................................................................................... 61 Effective Response Force and Critical Tasking .................................................................................. 63 NCFD Staffing Model ........................................................................................................................ 63 NCFD Response Times .......................................................................................................................... 70 Section 5. EMS Analysis .............................................................................................. 80 National City EMS Provider Background ............................................................................................ 80 National City EMS Workload ................................................................................................................ 80

iv
EMS Reliability .................................................................................................................................... 81 Consideration for NCFD Ground Ambulance Operations .............................................................. 83 Payer Mix ............................................................................................................................................ 83 Potential National City Ground Transport Revenues .................................................................... 83 Potential National City Ground Transport Expenses ..................................................................... 85 Capital Costs ..................................................................................................................................... 89 Annual Operating Expenses ............................................................................................................ 89 Financial Rollup – NCFD Operated Ambulance Service ............................................................. 90 AMR Ambulance Service Contract .................................................................................................... 91 Mobile Integrated Healthcare/Community Paramedicine ............................................................ 91 Section 6. Fire Emergency Communications System .............................................. 92 Section 7. NCFD Data Analysis .................................................................................. 94 Methodology ......................................................................................................................................... 95 Aggregate Call Totals and Runs ......................................................................................................... 96 Calls by Type ...................................................................................................................................... 96 Calls by Type and Duration ............................................................................................................. 99 Average Calls by Month and Hour of Day .................................................................................. 100 Units Arriving at Calls ....................................................................................................................... 102 Workload: Runs and Total Time Spent .............................................................................................. 104 Runs and Deployed Time – NCFD Units ........................................................................................ 104 Workload by Unit ............................................................................................................................. 108 Workload by Fire District ................................................................................................................. 110 Analysis of Busiest Hours ..................................................................................................................... 112 Response Time ..................................................................................................................................... 114 Response Time by Type of Call ...................................................................................................... 114 Response Time Distribution ............................................................................................................. 120 Fire Loss ................................................................................................................................................. 123 Attachment I: 2019 & 2020 Comparison .......................................................................................... 124 Calls Volume by Year ..................................................................................................................... 124 Workload by Year ........................................................................................................................... 126 Agency’s Availability by Year ........................................................................................................ 127 Response Time by Year .................................................................................................................. 128 Attachment II: Additional Personnel................................................................................................. 129 Attachment III: Calls Outside National City Fire District .................................................................. 130 Attachment IV: Aid Received Workload ......................................................................................... 132 Aid Received Calls by Type ........................................................................................................... 132 Runs and Arrivals by Aid Agency .................................................................................................. 133

v
Attachment V: Lincoln Acres ............................................................................................................ 134 Attachment VI: Paradise Hills ............................................................................................................. 136 Attachment VII: Call Type Identification .......................................................................................... 137 Attachment VIII: Removed Canceled Calls .................................................................................... 143 Section 8. AMR Data Analysis .................................................................................. 144 Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 144 Aggregate Call Totals and Runs ....................................................................................................... 146 Calls by Type .................................................................................................................................... 146 Calls by Type and Duration ........................................................................................................... 148 Average Calls by Month and Hour of Day .................................................................................. 149 Arriving Units ..................................................................................................................................... 151 Workload: Runs and Total Time Spent .............................................................................................. 153 Runs and Deployed Time – All Units .............................................................................................. 153 Workload by Unit ............................................................................................................................. 156 Workload by District ........................................................................................................................ 160 Analysis of Busiest Hours ..................................................................................................................... 161 Response Time ..................................................................................................................................... 163 Response Time by Type of Call ...................................................................................................... 164 Response Time by Hour .................................................................................................................. 166 Response Time Distribution ............................................................................................................. 168 Transport Call Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 170 Transport Calls by Type ................................................................................................................... 170 Average Transport Calls per Hour ................................................................................................. 171 Calls by Type and Duration ........................................................................................................... 173 Transport Time Components .......................................................................................................... 174 Attachment I: 2019 & 2020 Comparison .......................................................................................... 175 Call Volume by Year ....................................................................................................................... 175 Workload by Year ........................................................................................................................... 177 Response Time Comparison by Year ............................................................................................ 179 Transport Comparison by Year .......................................................................................................... 180 Attachment II: Call Type Identification ............................................................................................ 182

vi
TABLES
TABLE 2-1: NCFD General Fund Appropriations, Fiscal Years 2020–2022 ............................................ 11 TABLE 2-2: NCFD Facilities, with Apparatus and Staffing ...................................................................... 13 TABLE 2-3: NCFD Fleet ............................................................................................................................... 14 TABLE 3-1: Environmental Risks: Potential Hazard and Loss in National City ...................................... 24 TABLE 3-2: Fire Call Types, 2019 and 2020 .............................................................................................. 33 TABLE 3-3: EMS Call Types, 2019 and 2020 ............................................................................................. 33 TABLE 3-4: AMR Calls by Call Type, 2019 and 2020 ............................................................................... 34 TABLE 3-5: Transport Calls by Call Type by AMR EMS Service for 2019................................................ 34 TABLE 3-6: Content and Property Loss, Structure and Outside Fires, 2016–2020................................ 42 TABLE 3-7: San Diego Metro Zone Response Plan Matrix ..................................................................... 43 TABLE 3-8: Aid Received Actual Arrivals by Agency, First Due Area, 2019 and 2020 ....................... 43 TABLE 3-9: Aid Given Workload, Actual Arrival by NCFD, 2019 and 2020 .......................................... 44 TABLE 3-10: Calls and Workload in Lincoln Acres by Call Type, 2019 and 2020 ................................ 44 TABLE 3-11: Calls and Workload in Paradise Hills by Call Type. 2019 and 2020 ................................. 45 TABLE 3-12: Call Workload by NCFD Units, 2019 and 2020 ................................................................... 47 TABLE 3-13: Trend of Frequency of Overlapping Calls ......................................................................... 48 TABLE 3-14: Station Availability to Respond to Calls ............................................................................. 48 TABLE 3-15: Trend of Frequency Distribution of the Number of Calls .................................................. 49 TABLE 3-16: Squad 33 Workload in 2019 and 2020 ................................................................................ 50 TABLE 3-17: Event Probability ................................................................................................................... 51 TABLE 3-18: Consequence to Community Matrix ................................................................................. 52 TABLE 3-19: Impact on NCFD ................................................................................................................... 53 TABLE 4-1: NCFD Shift Matrix .................................................................................................................... 64 TABLE 4-2: Effective Response Force for Single-Family Dwelling Fire .................................................. 65 TABLE 4-3: NCFD Effective Response Force for Single-Family Dwelling Fire ....................................... 65 TABLE 4-4: Effective Response Force for Open-Air Strip Mall/Commercial Fire ................................. 66 TABLE 4-5: NCFD Effective Response Force for Open-Air Strip Mall/Commercial Fire ...................... 66 TABLE 4-6: Effective Response Force for Apartment Building Fire ....................................................... 67 TABLE 4-7: NCFD Effective Response Force for Apartment Building Fire ............................................ 67 TABLE 4-8: Structure Fire – High Rise ........................................................................................................ 68 TABLE 4-9: NCFD Effective Response Force for High-Rise Fire .............................................................. 69 TABLE 4-9: Average Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Call Type, 2019 and 2020 .................... 78 TABLE 4-10: 90th Percentile Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Call Type, 2019 and 2020 ....... 78 TABLE 5-1: NCFD Average EMS Response Times.................................................................................... 82 TABLE 5-2: NCFD 90th Percentile EMS Response Times ......................................................................... 82 TABLE 5-3: AMR Average EMS Response Times ..................................................................................... 82 TABLE 5-4: AMR 90th Percentile EMS Response Times ........................................................................... 82 TABLE 5-5: National City Projected EMS Payer Mix................................................................................ 83 TABLE 5-6: Projected Transport Fee Schedule ....................................................................................... 84

vii
TABLE 5-7: NCFD 3-Year Estimated EMS Transport Revenues ............................................................... 84 TABLE 5-8: NCFD 24/7 Ambulance Needs ............................................................................................. 85 TABLE 5-9: NCFD EMS Staffing Cost: Year 1 ............................................................................................ 86 TABLE 5-10: NCFD EMS Staffing Cost: Year 2 .......................................................................................... 87 TABLE 5-11: NCFD EMS Staffing Cost: Year 3 .......................................................................................... 88 TABLE 5-12: NCFD EMS Capital Outlay and Capital Annualized Costs .............................................. 89 TABLE 5-13: NCFD EMS Annualized Operating Costs ............................................................................ 89 TABLE 5-14: NCFD EMS Net Operating Margin ...................................................................................... 90 TABLE 5-15: NCFD EMS Financial Impact ................................................................................................ 90 TABLE 7-1: Studied Calls by Location, Responding Agency, and Year .............................................. 95 TABLE 7-2: Calls by Type ........................................................................................................................... 96 TABLE 7-3: Calls by Type and Duration ................................................................................................... 99 TABLE 7-4: Calls by Call Type and Number of Arriving NCFD Units ................................................... 102 TABLE 7-5: Annual Runs and Deployed Time by Run Type ................................................................. 104 TABLE 7-6: Deployed Minutes by Hour of Day ..................................................................................... 106 TABLE 7-7: Workload by Unit................................................................................................................... 108 TABLE 7-8: Total Runs by Run Type and Unit ......................................................................................... 108 TABLE 7-9: Deployed Minutes per Day by Run Type and Unit ........................................................... 109 TABLE 7-10: Annual Workload by Fire District ....................................................................................... 110 TABLE 7-11: Structure and Outside Fire Runs by Fire District ............................................................... 110 TABLE 7-12: Frequency Distribution of the Number of Calls by Year ................................................. 112 TABLE 7-13: Top Ten Hours with the Most Calls Received ................................................................... 112 TABLE 7-14: Frequency of Overlapping Calls ....................................................................................... 113 TABLE 7-15: NCFD Station Availability to Respond to Calls ................................................................ 113 TABLE 7-16: Average Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Call Type ........................................... 115 TABLE 7-17: 90th Percentile Response Time of Average Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Call Type .......................................................................................................................................................... 116 TABLE 7-18: Average and 90th Percentile Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Hour of Day ... 118 TABLE 7-19: Cumulative Distribution of Response Time – First Arriving Unit – EMS ............................ 121 TABLE 7-20: Cumulative Distribution of Response Time – First Arriving Unit – Outside and Structure Fires ........................................................................................................................................................... 122 TABLE 7-21: Total Fire Loss Above and Below $25,000 ........................................................................ 123 TABLE 7-22: Content and Property Loss – Structure and Outside Fires .............................................. 123 TABLE 7-23: Calls by Type and Year ...................................................................................................... 124 TABLE 7-24: Annual Workload by District and Year ............................................................................. 126 TABLE 7-25: Annual Workload by Station, Unit, and Year ................................................................... 126 TABLE 7-26: NCFD Station Availability to Respond to Calls by Year .................................................. 127 TABLE 7-27: Average Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Call Type and Year .......................... 128 TABLE 7-28: 90th Percentile Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Call Type and Year ............... 128 TABLE 7-29: Workload of Administrative Units by Year ........................................................................ 129 TABLE 7-30: Calls Outside NCFD District by Call Type and Year ........................................................ 130 TABLE 7-31: Aid Received Workload by Type and Year, Inside National City ................................. 132 TABLE 7-32: Aid Received Runs by Agency, First Due Area, and Year ............................................. 133

viii
TABLE 7-33: Aid Received Arrivals by Agency, First Due Area, and Year ......................................... 133 TABLE 7-34: Calls and Workload in Lincoln Acres by Call Type and Year ........................................ 134 TABLE 7-35: Response Time in Lincoln Acres, by Call Type ................................................................. 135 TABLE 7-36: Response Time in Lincoln Acres, by Time of Day ............................................................ 135 TABLE 7-37: Calls and Workload in Lincoln Acres by Call Type and Year ........................................ 136 TABLE 7-38: Call Type by NFIRS Incident Type Code ........................................................................... 137 TABLE 7-39: Call Type by CAD Problem Description ........................................................................... 140 TABLE 7-40: Removed Calls by Cancel Reason and Year ................................................................. 143 TABLE 8-1: Studied Calls Responding Agency and Year .................................................................... 144 TABLE 8-2: Call Types ............................................................................................................................... 146 TABLE 8-3: Calls by Type and Duration ................................................................................................. 148 TABLE 8-4: Calls by Call Type and Number of Units Arriving ............................................................... 151 TABLE 8-5: Annual Runs and Deployed Time by Run Type ................................................................. 153 TABLE 8-6: Average Deployed Minutes by Hour of Day .................................................................... 154 TABLE 8-7: Call Workload by Unit ........................................................................................................... 156 TABLE 8-8: Annual Runs by Run Type and Unit ..................................................................................... 157 TABLE 8-9: Average Deployed Minutes by Run Type and Unit .......................................................... 158 TABLE 8-10: Annual Workload by NCFD Station Service District ........................................................ 160 TABLE 8-11: Frequency Distribution of the Number of Calls ............................................................... 161 TABLE 8-12: Top 10 Hours with the Most Calls Received ..................................................................... 161 TABLE 8-13: Frequency of Overlapping Calls ....................................................................................... 162 TABLE 8-14: Average Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Call Type ........................................... 164 TABLE 8-15: 90th Percentile Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Call Type ................................. 165 TABLE 8-16: Average and 90th Percentile Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Tim e of Day .... 166 TABLE 8-17: Cumulative Distribution of Response Time – First Arriving Unit ....................................... 169 TABLE 8-18: Transport Calls by Call Type............................................................................................... 170 TABLE 8-19: EMS Transport Calls per Hour, by Time of Day ................................................................. 171 TABLE 8-20: Transport Call Duration by Call Type ................................................................................ 173 TABLE 8-21: Time Component Analysis for Ambulance Transport Runs by Call Type ..................... 174 TABLE 8-22: Calls by Call Type and Year .............................................................................................. 175 TABLE 8-23: Workload by Unit and Year ............................................................................................... 177 TABLE 8-24: Average Response Time of First Arriving Unit by Call Type and Year ........................... 179 TABLE 8-25: Transport Calls and Workload by Call Type and Year ................................................... 180 TABLE 8-26: Call Type by CAD Problem Description ........................................................................... 182

ix

FIGURES
FIGURE 2-1: NCFD Organizational Chart .................................................................................................. 6 FIGURE 2-2: Operations Ancillary Duties, Battalion Chief Mora ............................................................. 6 FIGURE 2-3: Training/EMS Ancillary Duties, Battalion Chief Stiles ........................................................... 7 FIGURE 2-4: Support Programs Ancillary Duties, Battalion Chief Krepps............................................... 7 FIGURE 2-5: National City Jurisdictional Boundaries ............................................................................... 9 FIGURE 2-6: NCFD Fire Station Locations ................................................................................................ 10 FIGURE 2-7: NCFD Station 33 .................................................................................................................... 14 FIGURE 3-1: National City Existing Land Use Map.................................................................................. 26 FIGURE 3-2: High-Rise Building Risk Locations ......................................................................................... 27 FIGURE 3-3: USDCF/PEX Biofuels Transloading Project Location .......................................................... 28 FIGURE 3-4: National City Road Network ............................................................................................... 29 FIGURE 3-5: National City Mass Transit System ....................................................................................... 30 FIGURE 3-6: Port of San Diego in National City ...................................................................................... 32 FIGURE 3-7: NCFD In-City Fire Incident Demand (Structure and Outside Fires) ................................. 35 FIGURE 3-8: NCFD In-City False (Fire) Alarms, Good Intent, Hazard, Public Service Call Demand . 36 FIGURE 3-9: NCFD In-City EMS High Acuity Demand (Breathing Difficulty, Cardiac and Stroke and MVA)........................................................................................................................................................... 37 FIGURE 3-10: NCFD In-City EMS Demand and AMR Ground Transport Demand .............................. 38 FIGURE 3-11: PPC Ratings in the United States ...................................................................................... 40 FIGURE 3-12: PPC Ratings in California ................................................................................................... 40 FIGURE 3-13: NCFD Structure and Outside Fire Auto/Mutual Aid Demand Map (Out of City) ...... 46 FIGURE 3-14: NCFD EMS Auto/Mutual Aid Demand Map (Out of City) ............................................. 46 FIGURE 3-15: Calls by Hour of Day .......................................................................................................... 48 FIGURE 3-16: Three-Axis Risk Calculation (RC) ....................................................................................... 54 FIGURE 3-17: Low Risk ................................................................................................................................ 55 FIGURE 3-18: Moderate Risk ..................................................................................................................... 56 FIGURE 3-19: High Risk ............................................................................................................................... 57 FIGURE 3-20: Special Risk .......................................................................................................................... 58 FIGURE 4-1: Effective Response Force for Single-Family Dwelling Fire ................................................ 63 FIGURE 4-2: Fire Growth from Inception to Flashover ........................................................................... 71 FIGURE 4-3: Cardiac Arrest Survival Probability by Minute ................................................................... 72 FIGURE 4-4: Incident Cascade of Events ............................................................................................... 73 FIGURE 4-5: 240-Second Travel Time Maps ............................................................................................ 75 FIGURE 4-6: 360-Second Travel Time Maps ............................................................................................ 76 FIGURE 4-7: 480-Second Travel Time Maps ............................................................................................ 77 FIGURE 7-1: EMS Calls by Type ................................................................................................................. 97 FIGURE 7-2: Fire Calls by Type .................................................................................................................. 97 FIGURE 7-3: Calls per Day by Month ..................................................................................................... 100 FIGURE 7-4: Average Calls by Hour of Day .......................................................................................... 101

x
FIGURE 7-5: Calls by Number of Arriving NCFD Units........................................................................... 103 FIGURE 7-6: Average Deployed Minutes by Hour of Day .................................................................. 107 FIGURE 7-7: Average Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Call Type – EMS ................................ 115 FIGURE 7-8: Average Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Call Type – Fire ................................. 116 FIGURE 7-9: Average Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Hour of Day ...................................... 119 FIGURE 7-10: Cumulative Distribution of Response Time – First Arriving Unit – EMS .......................... 120 FIGURE 7-11: Cumulative Distribution of Response Timer – First Arriving Unit – Outside and Structure Fires ........................................................................................................................................................... 121 FIGURE 7-12: Average Calls by Month and Year ................................................................................ 125 FIGURE 7-13: Average Calls by Hour of Day and Year ....................................................................... 125 FIGURE 7-14: Average Deployed Minutes by Hour of Day in 2019 and 2020 .................................. 127 FIGURE 7-15: EMS Calls by Type and Year, Outside National City .................................................... 131 FIGURE 7-16: Fire Calls by Type and Year, Outside National City ..................................................... 131 FIGURE 8-1: Calls by Type ....................................................................................................................... 147 FIGURE 8-2: Average Calls by Month.................................................................................................... 149 FIGURE 8-3: Calls by Hour of Day........................................................................................................... 150 FIGURE 8-4: Calls by Number of Units Arriving ...................................................................................... 151 FIGURE 8-5: Average Deployed Minutes by Hour of Day .................................................................. 155 FIGURE 8-6: Average Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Call Type ........................................... 164 FIGURE 8-7: Average Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Hour of Day ...................................... 167 FIGURE 8-8: Cumulative Distribution of Response Time – First Arriving Unit ....................................... 168 FIGURE 8-9: Average Transport Calls by Hour of Day ......................................................................... 172 FIGURE 8-10: Calls per Day by Month and Year .................................................................................. 176 FIGURE 8-11: Calls per Hour by Time of Day and Year ....................................................................... 176 FIGURE 8-12: Average Deployed Minutes by Hour of Day in 2019 and 2020 .................................. 178 FIGURE 8-13: Average Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Hour of Day and Year ................... 179 FIGURE 8-14: Average Transport Calls by Hour and Year ................................................................... 181

1 SECTION 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Center for Public Safety Management LLC (CPSM) was contracted by the City of National City, CA to complete an analysis of the city’s Fire Department, EMS ground transport service, and fire dispatch services.

The National City Fire Department (NCFD) is responsible for providing services from two primary divisions that include Operations (fire suppression, first response emergency medical services, emergency management, training and education, EMS oversight and logistics, fleet and facility oversight, emergency communications liaison, and technical rescue), and Community Risk Reduction (fire code enforcement, fire investigation, weed abatement, new business license inspections, public education to the extent possible, and juvenile fire setter intervention). The NCFD carries out these and other logistical and administrative functions through the Fire Chief’s office and operational fire suppression officers and staff.

The service demands on the department from the community are numerous and include EMS first response; fire suppression; wild land-urban interface; technical rescue; hazardous materials; and transportation emergencies to include extensive rail and vehicle traffic, a mass transit system utilizing bus and light rail transportation, the Port of San Diego property to include marine vessels, buildings, and occupancies located within the city’s municipal boundaries; and other non-emergency responses typical of urban fire departments. A significant component of this report is the completion of an All-Hazard Risk Assessment of the Community. The All-Hazard Risk Assessment of the Community contemplates many factors that cause, create, facilitate, extend, and enhance risk in and to a community. The risk assessment includes Port property and proposed new industrial businesses/processes that are contemplating build-out in National City.

The response time and staffing components discussion of this report are designed to examine the current level of service provided by the NCFD compared to national best practices. As well, these components of the report provide incident data and relevant information that can be utilized for future planning and self-review of service levels for continued improvement designed to meet community expectations and mitigate emergencies effectively and efficiently. Included also is an analysis of fire and EMS responses the NCFD provides through a regional automatic aid agreement to Paradise Hills, an area of San Diego City contiguous to National City.

Other significant components of this report are an analysis of the current deployment of resources and the performance of these resources in terms of response times and the three NCFD fire stations; current staffing levels and patterns; department resiliency (ability to handle more than one incident at a time); critical tasking elements for specific incident responses and assembling an effective response force; the private EMS ground transport system with an analysis that depicts the start-up and annualized cost of a city EMS service; and an analysis to include start-up and annualized costs of a city fire dispatch section in the National City Police 911 Center. CPSM analyzed these items and provides recommendations where applicable to improve service delivery and for future planning purposes.

A comprehensive risk assessment and review of deployable assets are critical aspects of a fire department’s operation. First, these reviews will assist the NCFD in quantifying the risks that it faces. Second, the NCFD will be better equipped to determine if its current response resources are sufficiently staffed, equipped, trained, and positioned. The factors that drive th e service needs are examined and then link directly to discussions regarding the assembling of an effective response force; these factors also must be considered when contemplating the response capabilities needed to adequately address the existing and future risks, and which

2 encompass the component of critical tasking. CPSM does recommend additional staffing on both Engines 31 and 34 over a five-year period. This recommendation is based on current and projected building, transportation, and other risks inherent to the city, and as comprehensively discussed herein.

This report also contains a series of observations and planning objectives and recommendations provided by CPSM which are intended to help the NCFD deliver services more efficiently and effectively. This includes succession planning for near-term retirements, administrative capacity needed to manage day-to-day programs and processes such as workforce training and education, EMS (the greatest response workload of the department), and fleet and facil ities (the infrastructure backbone of the department), and as well additional capacity in the Fire Marshal’s Office, based on current and projected fire code inspection workload.

Recommendations and considerations for continuous improvement of services are presented here. CPSM recognizes there may be recommendations and considerations offered that first must be budgeted and/or bargained, or for which processes must be developed prior to implementation.

§ § §

3 RECOMMENDATIONS
Department Structure

1. CPSM recommends the NCFD work with the city’s Human Resources Department and develop and implement a succession planning process that identifies and develops future organizational leadership and includes key components that focuses on the retention of current talent. Included in this planning should be consideration for a 40-hour Deputy Fire Chief position that will work with the Fire Chief managing the day-to-day activities and programs of the department. This position would be the likely successor to the Fire Chief on his retirement and would ensure succession of current department direction. This position can be implemented and filled through promotion (retention opportunity), which will create a vacancy to be filled at the lesser expensive Firefighter level. (See pp. 5-8.)

2. CPSM also recommends the city consider adding an administrative Battalion Chief position to assist with the day-to-day management of the department and to assume key program assignments currently assigned to shift Battalion Chiefs such as training, EMS, fleet and facilities, and health and safety. This position can be implemented through promotion (retention opportunity), which will create a vacancy to be filled at the lesser expensive Firefighter level. (See pp. 5-8.)
Estimated cost alternatives to support these recommendations are: Deputy Chief position internal promotion, $108,000 (salary and benefits for one firefighter/EMT and $20,000 for promotions for Engineer, Captain, and Battalion Chief); Battalion Chief position through internal promotion, $103,000 (salary and benefits for one firefighter/EMT and $15,000 for promotions of Engineer and Captain).

Fleet and Facilities

3. CPSM recommends the NCFD, due to the current and expected future workload on apparatus, follow to the extent possible the current apparatus in-service and replacement schedule. (See pp. 11-16.)

4. CPSM further recommends the city continue with its planning to construct a permanent brick and mortar station in the northeast portion of the city utilizing national industry standards for fire facilities as outlined herein and designed to accommodate current and future response apparatus and personnel. (See pp. 11-16.)
ISO Rating

5. CPSM recommends the NCFD review and address, to the extent possible, deficiencies in the current ISO Public Protection Classification report (Fire Department Section) as outlined in this analysis. This includes, and given the identified building risks in the city, ensuring company personnel conduct (and document for future ISO reviews) some level of commercial, industrial, institutional, and other similar type buildings (all buildings except one- to four-family dwellings) familiarization and pre-plan information gathering; work with Sweetwater Authority to ensure the fire hydrants are inspected and flow-tested on a more regular basis; address Community Risk Reduction staffing and make adjustments to staffing to ensure curre nt (and future) inspectable properties (2,700 total current) are receiving annualized (where required) inspections, and those not requiring annualized inspections receive timely inspections in accordance with applicable laws and standards, and as established by the Fire Marshal.

Addressing the Community Risk Reduction deficiency will require additional staffing, to the extent possible with available funding, which has an estimated cost of $87,500 to $117,000 per Community Risk Reduction inspector, dependent on placement in the pay range. (See pp. 39-41.)

4 Risk Assessment / Resiliency

6. CPSM recommends the NCFD continue with the Squad program as designed, due to the efficiencies and effectiveness this unit has produced for the city. CPSM further recommends the NCFD monitor dual responses (Squad/Engine) and make necessary adjustments to maintain a 10-percent ratio. (See pp. 47-50.)
NCFD Staffing Model

7. CPSM recommends the NCFD, to the extent possible and if practical depending on available automatic and mutual aid resources, work with regional Fire Chiefs to increas e response resources to commercial, apartment, and high-rise fire responses that align more closely with the NFPA 1710 standard. (See pp. 63-69.)

8. CPSM further recommends due to the following factors: demand for service on the NCFD; population density that includes substantial current and projected vertical density structures, many involving assisted and/or senior living; building and other risks identified in this report such as the San Diego Port property; industrial and commercial properties that include heavy rail and tractor-trailer transportation; proposed industrial and commercial properties; the resiliency issues the department faces due to demand for service; and to increase NCFD resources regarding assembling an Effective Response Force, that the city develop a one- to three-year funding plan to increase staffing on Engine 31 to four per shift (three total personnel with estimated costs of $263,000) as this is a single station response unit in a high- demand fire management zone, and in the subsequent three- to five-year period develop a funding plan to increase staffing on Engine 34 to four per shift (three total personnel with estimated costs of $263,000 to $300,000, depending on implementation year). (See pp. 63-

69.)
Ambulance Service

9. The current method of ambulance service provision of using an outside contractor should be retained, and the NCFD should not assume responsibility for providing ambulance services to the city. (See pp. 83-91.)

10. The city should negotiate with AMR for significant contracting updates or consider undergoing an RFP process to seek enhanced service delivery models, either from the current, or prospective ambulance service providers. (See pp. 83-91.) Mobile Integrated Healthcare

11. NCFD should engage in discussions with local and regional stakeholders to determine the potential benefits and impact of initiating a Mobile Integrated Healthcare / Community Paramedicine program. (See p. 91.)
Fire Emergency Communications

12. Based on the initial start-up and annualized costs CPSM estimates Fire Dispatch in-house totals, and that the annualized costs almost double the current San Diego Metro Fire Dispatch costs, CPSM strongly recommends National City continue with the current agreement with San Diego City for fire dispatch services. CPSM does recommend, however, that National City work with San Diego City to reduce the current fire dispatch agreement costs to offset the costs the NCFD incurs as the de facto fire department for Paradise Hills, which was demonstrated in the analysis. (See pp. 92-93.)

5 SECTION 2. AGENCY REVIEW AND

CHARACTERISTICS

DEPARTMENT OVERVIEW AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
The National City Fire Department (NCFD) is responsible for providing emergency services from two primary divisions that include Operations (primarily fire suppression, first response emergency medical services) and Community Risk Reduction (fire code enforcement, fire prevention and plans review, new business license inspection program, weed abatement). Other programs administered through these primary divisions include the City’s emergency management function, a department health and safety program, professional development programs , community education to include juvenile fire setter intervention program and CPR classes, hazardous materials and technical rescue response, and Community Emergency Response Team or CERT program. These represent best practices/best program practices for fire service agencies.

The NCFD is led by a Chief of Emergency Services/Fire Chief. This position (department head level) serves as a member of the City Manager’s cabinet. The organizational structure includes senior and middle manager level positions (Fire Marshal, Deputy Fire Marshal, Battalion Chiefs), first-line supervisors (Captain level), engineers (apparatus driver-operator), firefighters, and civilian support staff. The largest contingent of personnel in the organization are company -level officers, engineers, and firefighters.

Field operations provide services from three operational shifts and work a 24-hour schedule. The operational shift schedule consists of a 24-hour shift every other day for 7 total days (4 x 24-hour shifts, with a day off in between each), followed by 4 days off and then 6 days in the next cycle.

This schedule ensures compliance with 29 U.S.C 207(k) wherein firefighters working in excess of 53-hours/week must be compensated for the three additional hours worked each week or scheduled off. This is a national best practice.

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ground transportation is provided in National City by a single private ambulance service, American Medical Response (AMR). The NCFD responds to EMS incidents as a first responder agency. NCFD engine, ladder, and squad compa nies have appropriately trained staff (including Paramedic level) on duty on each apparatus to render pre-transport emergency care to those requiring that care.

The following figure illustrates the NCFD’s chart of the organization.

6 FIGURE 2-1: NCFD Organizational Chart

Note: On July 25, 2022, Fire Chief Parra became the Interim Assistant City Manager. BC Sergio Mora became the Interim Fire Chief. These assignments are for the near term (three-month period) but could be longer.

In addition to normal work assignments—and due to the limited capacity of NCFD administrative positions—operational shift Battalion Chiefs perform and oversee many ancillary duties and programs necessary to maintain administrative and operational systems and components of the organization. These are illustrated in the next three figures.

FIGURE 2-2: Operations Ancillary Duties, Battalion Chief Mora

7 FIGURE 2-3: Training/EMS Ancillary Duties, Battalion Chief Stiles

FIGURE 2-4: Support Programs Ancillary Duties, Battalion Chief Krepps

The programs, processes, and inter-workings of a fire department are many as can be seen in the above three figures. A drawback to assigning almost all of these components to shift personnel is that during their absence (either off-duty on shift rotation or out on leave) is the potential something is not getting done or will be missed. This is a real occurrence in any fire

8 department. Traditional administrative support positions in a fire department include those assigned the training, EMS and logistics (radio and comms, supply chain m anagement, fleet, and facility) functions. Most smaller fire departments combine one or more of these main functions together and also include the health and safety oversight function as well.

CPSM learned while on-site in March 2022, that the Fire Chief may retire in 24 to 30 months, and one Battalion Chief and the Fire Marshal (Battalion Chief Position) are also approaching retirement in the near term (18 to 36 months). This will create a gap at the senior management level as 60 percent of the top leadership may depart over a three-year period. While there likely is an informal succession plan in the department, a more formal plan should be developed to address these and other near-term retirements. Our analysis of the NCFD did not identify a clear organizational succession plan.

Succession planning in the NCFD should include a systematic approach to developing potential successors to ensure organizational leadership stability is maintained. A plan should be in place to identify, develop, and nurture potential future leaders. CPSM sees this as critical for the long- term success of the NCFD. This plan should also include a focus on current talent and the retention of this valuable staff. CPSM was told by senior management that other area fire departments pursue the hiring of NCFD staff because of the urban response and firefighting capabilities in which staff is trained in National City. This raiding of seasoned staff creates knowledge and experience gaps in an already small agency and leads to continual hiring and onboarding expenses. Together (succession planning and retention of talent) is a systems approach that should not be overlooked.

Recommendations:
■ CPSM recommends the NCFD work with the city’s Human Resources Department and develop and implement a succession planning process that identifies and develops future organizational leadership and includes key components that focuses on the retention of current talent. Included in this planning should be consideration for a 40-hour Deputy Fire Chief position that will work with the Fire Chief managing the day-to-day activities and programs of the department. This position would be the likely successor to the Fire Chief on his retirement and would ensure succession of current department direction. This position can be implemented and filled through promotion (retention opportunity), which will create a vacancy to be filled at the lesser expensive Firefighter level. (Recommendation No. 1.) ■ CPSM also recommends the city consider adding an administrative Battalion Chief position to assist with the day-to-day management of the department and to assume key program assignments currently assigned to shift Battalion Chiefs such as training, EMS, fleet and facilities, and health and safety. This position can be implemented through promotion (retention opportunity), which will create a vacancy to be filled at the lesser expensive Firefighter level. (Recommendation No. 2.)
Estimated cost alternatives to support these recommendations are: Deputy Chief position internal promotion, $108,000 (salary and benefits for one firefighter/EMT and $20,000 for promotions for Engineer, Captain, and Battalion Chief); Battalion Chief position through internal promotion, $103,000 (salary and benefits for one firefighter/EMT and $15,000 for promotions of Engineer and Captain).

9 SERVICE AREA
National City is in the south bay area of San Diego County. The city boundaries encompass 9.1 total square miles of which 7.8 square miles are land area and the remainder water area.

Contiguous jurisdictions include the City of San Diego city to the north and northeast, Bonita to the southeast (unincorporated San Diego County), and Chula Vista to the south (National City and Chula Vista are separated by the Sweetwater River).

The next figure illustrates the municipal boundaries of the city in which the NCFD responds. The NCFD also provides automatic/mutual aid to San Diego city and county, Bonita, and Chula Vista.

FIGURE 2-5: National City Jurisdictional Boundaries

The NCFD provides emergency services from three stations located in the city. Response is primarily made through two engine companies, one ladder/truck company, one quick response squad unit, one shift command vehicle, and various other operational support vehicles to include a state Office of Emergency Services Type 1 engine apparatus for wildland firefighting and deployment. In addition to in-city mitigation of fire and emergency service incidents, the NCFD provides and receives mutual/automatic aid from neighboring/contiguous jurisdictions (a national best practice).

Engine and ladder company response is provided through traditional fire apparatus. The squad apparatus is a Type 6 engine (heavy-duty pick-up truck chassis with equipment body) unit that has a 120 gpm pump and 250-gallon water tank and carries a crew of two (Captain and FF). This unit also has hose for initial attack on small outside fires, fire-related hand tools, self-contained breathing apparatus for the two-person crew, and basic and advanced medical equipment for first response EMS calls for service. This unit also carries crew member structural and wildland firefighting protective clothing and other crew-related equipment.

The squad unit was placed in service as the result of a 2009 fire service consultant report that identified gaps in response service in the northeast area of the city. This busy area of the city was Area within red outline is
unincorporated
San Diego County
A southern, noncontiguous area of
National City is located within the South
San Diego Bay Unit of the San Diego
National Wildlife Refuge that. In this refuge
are approximately 1,050 acres of salt
ponds currently in active salt production
by a commercial solar salt operation,
which is permitted to operate within the
refuge through the United States Fish and
Wildlife Service (USFWS). Source: National
City General Plan 2011.

10 receiving emergency response from NCFD stations 31 and 34, as well as from mutual aid partner the City of San Diego. Several benefits have been realized by placing this unit in service:
■ Quicker first due response to fire and EMS calls in the busy northeast portion of the city. ■ Since this unit is not a resource type that is included in the mutual/auto aid agreements in the region, it does not leave the city, increasing its readiness to respond at all times. ■ This unit provides an additional two firefighters (Captain, Firefighter) to respond to multi-unit responses such as structure fires in the city, increasing the ability for the NCFD to quickly assemble an Effective Response Force.

The following figure shows the municipal boundaries with NCFD fire station locations.

FIGURE 2-6: NCFD Fire Station Locations

§ § §

Squad 33
Staffing: 2
Engine 34
Staffing: 3
Ladder 34
Staffing: 4
Engine 31
Staffing: 3

11 NCFD BUDGET AND CAPITAL ASSETS
An overview of the annual NCFD appropriations from the general fund is provided in the following table; it includes the general fund budget allocations for fiscal years 2020, 2021, and 2022.

TABLE 2-1: NCFD General Fund Appropriations, Fiscal Years 2020–2022 FY 2020 Adopted
(General Fund)
FY 2021 Adjusted
Appropriations
(General Fund)
FY 2022 Adjusted
Appropriations
(General Fund)
$11,424,457 $11,369,542 $11,106,737

Traditionally, and like every other career fire department in the nation, the NCFD’s budget is primarily consumed by personnel costs. This includes salary, benefit and retirement costs, overtime, and worker’s compensation, which are the larger line items in this budget area. The NCFD personnel services budget area consistently represents approximately 80 percent of the total budget. The next largest budget area is internal service charges (12 percent in FY 2022), which are for the operation and repair of facilities and equipment, automotive operational/repair costs and replacement, and maintenance and operations of equipment.

The NCFD does have certain revenues line items in the budget to offset overall expenditures.

These include (FY 2022 proposed budget):
■ Charges for community risk reduction services (plans review, fire permit fees, license and permit fees, weed abatement): $71,879.
■ False alarm fines: $55,000.
■ AMR (EMS ground transport provider) station rental fees: $94,200 ■ Charges for fire services (misc. fire services, fire protection services for certain unincorporated San Diego County areas, fire services for the Port of San Diego, fire/life safety annual fire inspection fees): $1,317,620.
■ AMR Franchise Fee (EMT-D Revolving Fund): $334,124 (used for certain personnel services costs in fire operations).
■ Development impact fees: $10,000.

The NCFD received a grant from the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) program and has a FY 2022 expenditure of $590,185 from this grant. Lastly, the city and department are utilizing Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for bond principal and interest redemption in fire operations.

Capital Assets
Facilities
Fire facilities must be designed and constructed to accommodate both current and forecast trends in fire service vehicle type and manufactured dimensions. A facility must have sufficiently - sized bay doors, circulation space between garaged vehicles, departure and return aprons of adequate length and turn geometry to ensure safe response, and floor drains and oil separators to satisfy environmental concerns. Station vehicle bay areas should also consider future tactical vehicles that may need to be added to the fleet to address forecast response challenges, even

12 if this consideration merely incorporates civil design that ensures adequate parcel space for additional bays to be constructed in the future.

Personnel-oriented needs in fire facilities must enable performance of daily duties in support of response operations. For personnel, fire facilities must have provisions for vehicle maintenance and repair; storage areas for essential equipment and supplies; space and amenities for administrative work, training, physical fitness, laundering, meal preparation, and personal hygiene/comfort; and—where a fire department is committed to minimize “turnout time”— bunking facilities.

A fire department facility may serve as a de facto “safe haven” during local community emergencies and also serve as likely command center for large-scale, protracted, campaign emergency incidents. Therefore, design details and construction materials and methods should embrace a goal of having a facility that can perform in an uninterrupted manner despite prevailing climatic conditions and/or disruption of utilities. Programmatic details, such as the provision of an emergency generator connected to automatic transfer switching —even going as far as to provide tertiary redundancy of power supply via a “piggyback” roll -up generator with manual transfer (should the primary generator fail)—provide effective safeguards that permit the fire department to function fully during local emergencies when response activity predictably peaks.

Personnel/occupant safety is a key element of effective station design. This begins with smal l details such as the quality of finish on bay floors and nonslip treads on stairwell steps to decrease tripping/fall hazards, or use of hands-free plumbing fixtures and easily disinfected surfaces/countertops to promote infection control. It continues with installation of specialized equipment such as an exhaust recovery system to capture and remove cancer -causing by- products of diesel fuel exhaust emissions. A design should thoughtfully incorporate best practices for achieving a safe and hygienic work environment.

An ergonomic layout and corresponding space adjacencies in a fire station should seek to limit the travel distances between occupied crew areas to the apparatus bays. Likewise, facility design should carefully consider complementary adjacencies, such as lavatories/showers in proximity of bunk rooms, desired segregations, and break rooms or fitness areas that are remote from sleeping quarters. Furnishings, fixtures, and equipment selections should provide thoughtful consideration of the around-the-clock occupancy inherent to fire facilities. Durability is essential, given the accelerated wear and life cycle of systems and goods in facilities that are constantly occupied and operational.

Sound community fire-rescue protection requires the strategic distribution of fire station facilities to ensure that effective service area coverage is achieved, that predicted response travel times satisfy prevailing community goals and national best practices, and that the facilities are capable of supporting mission-critical personnel and vehicle-oriented requirements and needs.

Additionally, depending on a fire-rescue department’s scope of services, size, and complexity, other facilities may be necessary to support emergency communications, personnel training, fleet and essential equipment maintenance and repair, and supply storage and distribution.

National standards such as NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety, Health, and Wellness Program, outlines standards that transfer to facilities such as infection control, personnel and equipment decontamination, cancer prevention, storage of protective clothing, and employee fitness. NFPA 1851, Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Protective Ensembles for Structural Firefighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, further delineates laundering standards for protective clothing and station wear. Laundry areas in fire facilities

13 continue to evolve and are being separated from living areas to reduce contamination. Factors such as wastewater removal and air flow need to be considered in a facility design.

The NCFD operates out of three operational facilities strategically located throughout the city.

Each station houses around-the-clock crews, 365 days a year. Two stations house one crew and one piece of first response apparatus (an engine at Station 31 and a squad at Station 33), while one station houses more than one crew and two primary first response apparatus (engine and truck companies-Station 34).

Apparatus and staffing assignments are outlined in the following table.

TABLE 2-2: NCFD Facilities, with Apparatus and Staffing Station
Number Resource Assignment Year
Constructed
# Apparatus
Bays
31 Engine: 3 staff
24/7/365
1984 2
33 Squad: 2 staff
24/7/365
2019 2
34 Engine: 3 staff
Truck: 4 staff
Battalion Chief: 1 staff
24/7/365
2004 4

Station 33 is not a permanent brick and mortar facility. The implementation of the Squad Company, as discussed above, originated from a previous consulting study the city commissioned for the specific purpose of examining ways to service the increased demand (particularly regularly dispatched EMS and lower acuity fire responses) in the northeast area of the city and NCFD response area. Station 33 is a modular type building with an open awning that provides cover to response apparatus. The awning and building are not connected.

§ § §

14 FIGURE 2-7: NCFD Station 33

Fleet
The provision of an operationally ready and strategically located fleet of mission -essential fire- rescue vehicles is fundamental to the ability of a fire-rescue department to deliver reliable and efficient public safety within a community.

The NCFD currently operates a fleet of front-line fire apparatus as outlined in the following table.

TABLE 2-3: NCFD Fleet
Apparatus Type Year In Service Operational Assignment / Station Assigned
Type 1 Engine 2011 Front Line / 34
Type 1 Engine 2019 Front Line / 31
Type 1 Engine 2006 Reserve
Ladder-105’ Quint 2015 Front Line / 34
Ladder-105’ Quint 2009 Reserve
Water Tender-2000 gallons Front Line / 34
Type 6 Squad 2017 Front Line / 33

The procurement, maintenance, and eventual replacement of response vehicles is one of the largest expenses incurred in sustaining a community’s fire-rescue department. While it is the personnel of the NCFD who provide emergency services within the community, the department’s fleet of response vehicles is essential to operational success. Reliable vehicles are

15 needed to deliver responders and the equipment/materials they employ to the scene of dispatched emergencies within the city. Regular maintenance is performed by city fleet mechanics; specialized maintenance and repair of pump, aerial, and other fire apparatus are performed by a third-party fire apparatus maintenance vendor.

Replacement of fire-rescue response vehicles is a necessary, albeit expensive, element of fire department budgeting that should reflect careful planning. A well-planned and documented emergency vehicle replacement plan ensures ongoing preservation of a safe, dependable, and operationally capable response fleet. A plan must also include a schedule for future capital outlay in a manner that is affordable to the community.

NFPA 1901, Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus, serves as a guide to the manufacturers that build fire apparatus and the fire departments that purchase them. The document is updated every five years using input from the public/stakeholders through a formal review process. The committee membership is made up of representatives from the fire service, manufacturers, consultants, and special interest groups. The committee monitors various issues and problems that occur with fire apparatus and attempts to develop standards that address those issues. A primary interest of the committee over the past years has been improving firefighter safety and reducing fire apparatus crashes.

The Annex Material in NFPA 1901 (2016) contains recommendations and work sheets to assist in decision-making in vehicle purchasing. With respect to recommended vehicle service life, the following excerpt is noteworthy:
“It is recommended that apparatus greater than 15 years old that have been properly maintained and that are still in serviceable condition be placed in reserve status and upgraded in accordance with NFPA 1912, Standard for Fire Apparatus Refurbishing (2016), to incorporate as many features as possible of the current fire apparatus standard. This will ensure that, while the apparatus might not totally comply with the current edition of the automotive fire apparatus standards, many improvements and upgrades required by the recent versions of the standards are available to the firefighters who use the apparatus.” The impetus for these recommended service life thresholds is continual advances in occupant safety. Despite good stewardship and maintenance of emergency vehicles in sound operating condition, there are many advances in occupant safety, such as fully enclosed cabs, enhanced rollover protection and air bags, three-point restraints, antilock brakes, higher visibility, cab noise abatement/hearing protection, and a host of other improvements as reflected in each revision of NFPA 1901. These improvements provide safer response vehicles for those providing emergency services within the community, as well those “sharing the road” with these responders.

The NCFD follows the NFPA recommendations for apparatus replacement as such: 10-years front line, 5-years reserve. At the 15-year mark, the NCFD budgets in the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to replace the apparatus so as not to extend the service life much beyond 15 years. The 2006 engine apparatus is due to be replaced in the FY 23 CIP budget. Staff vehicles are replaced based on age, mileage, and consideration of recurrent maintenance costs.

Recommendations:
■ CPSM recommends the NCFD, due to the current and expected future workload on apparatus, follow to the extent possible the current apparatus in-service and replacement schedule. (Recommendation No. 3.)

16 ■ CPSM further recommends the city continue with its planning to construct a permanent brick and mortar station in the northeast portion of the city utilizing national industry standards for fire facilities as outlined herein and designed to accommodate current and future response apparatus and personnel. (Recommendation No. 4.)

TRAINING PROGRAMS
Training is, without question, one of the most essential functions that a fire department should be performing on a regular basis. One could even make a credible argument that training is, in some ways, as important as emergency responses because a department that is not well trained, prepared, and operationally ready will be unable to fulfill its emergency response obligations and mission. Education and training are vital at all levels of fire service operations to ensure that all necessary functions are completed correctly, safely, and effectively. A comprehensive, diverse, and ongoing training program is critical to the fire department’s level of success.

An effective fire department training program must cover all the essential elements of that department’s core missions and responsibilities. The level of training or education required given a set of tasks varies with the jobs to be performed. The program must include an appropriate combination of technical/classroom training, manipulative or hands-on/practical evolutions, and training assessment to gauge the effectiveness of these efforts. M uch of the training, and particularly the practical, standardized, hands-on training evolutions should be developed based upon the department’s own operating procedures and operations while remaining cognizant of widely accepted practices and standards that could be used as a benchmark to judge the department’s operations for any number of reasons.

The NCFD has an extensive Fire Services Manual, which serves as the standard operating guidelines for the department. Chapter 600 of this manual is dedicated to training and education of the workforce and comprehensively outlines the training regimen of the department.

Chapter 600.1 outlines the purpose of training, which is:

It is the policy of this department to administer a training program that will provide for the professional growth and continued development of its members. By doing so, the Department will ensure its members possess the knowledge and skills necessary to provide a professional level of service that meets the needs of the community.

Chapter 600.2 states the policy of the department with regards to training, which is:

The Department seeks to provide ongoing training and encourages all members to participate in advanced training and formal education on a continual basis.

Training is provided within the confines of funding, the requirements of a given assignment, staffing levels and legal mandates.

Whenever possible, the Department will use courses certified by the California Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM), the California Fire Service Training and Education System (CFSTES), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or other accredited entities.

Chapter 623.1 further states the department’s policy on individual responsibility as it links to training, and is:

17 The department shall provide a standardized Mandated Training Program to its members.

The department shall provide standardized training references and materials made available for the use of its members in conjunction with the Mandated Training Program.

All members shall participate in the Mandated Training Program relative to their position and classification within the department.

Certain Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations dictate that minimum training must be completed on an annual basis, covering assorted topics that include:
■ A review of the respiratory protection standard, self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) refresher and user competency training, SCBA fit testing (29 CFR 1910.134). ■ Blood Borne Pathogens Training (29 CFR 1910.1030).
■ Hazardous Materials Training (29 CFR 1910.120).
■ Confined Space Training (29 CFR 1910.146).
■ Structural Firefighting Training (29 CFR 1910.156).

Because so much depends upon the ability of the emergency responder to effectively deal with an emergency, education and training must have a prominent position within an emergency responder’s schedule of activities when on duty. Education and training programs also help to create the character of a fire service organization. Agencies that place a real emphasis on their training tend to be more proficient in carrying out day-to-day duties. The prioritization of training also fosters an image of professionalism and instills pride in the organization. Overall, the NCFD has an excellent robust and comprehensive training program and there exists a dedicated effort focused on a wide array of training activities.

The NCFD does not have a stand-alone training unit. Incumbent training is developed and implemented by and through in-house instructors. Training and education opportunities are available through community college programs, other regional fire departments, and Vector Solutions, an on-line training platform.

The department hires only fire- and EMS-certified prospective employees. Minimum hiring requirements include (per NCFD Lateral FF job announcement):
■ Possession of Calf. State Fire Marshal Firefighter I certification and one year of employment with a paid municipal fire department, California State fire department, or Federal fire department.
■ High School Diploma or GED.
■ Possession of a valid California Class C driver's license is required at the time of appointment. ■ Possession of a valid EMT Level IA certification with the County of San Diego or the State Fire Marshal, or State of California Paramedic License, or National Registry Paramedic License.

Prospective employees are also noticed through the job announcement that t he ability to obtain additional certificates as required to operate in an ever-changing fire service, Technical Rescue, Hazardous Material Awareness and Operations, etc., may be required during the term of employment.

18 Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations (CCR) also stipulates certain training classes that are grouped dependent on whether the staff member is initial and entry level staff; emergency response staff; firefighter level staff; and certain training dependent on response functions.

The NCFD has implemented a three-year training task book for new firefighters, which is a national best practice. This task book is assigned to the Captain level, where the accountability for completing the book rests. The task book is comprehensive, task oriented, and includes written, manipulative (hands-on), and presentation scoring at the end of years one and two.

Training includes manipulative, didactic, computer-based, and self-study. The assigned Captain manages the employee’s progress and is responsible for ensuring the employee is prepared to perform at the firefighter level. Shift Battalion Chiefs have oversight of the program as well.

The NCFD has also implemented a task book for engine company driver operations. This Task Book is designed to provide a training format and in-house certification of the minimum skill level needed to successfully operate engine (pumper) apparatus as the driver and pump operator.

This task book is a model as well and is a national best practice. To achieve certification and subsequently be released to drive and operate the engine apparatus, the firefighter must successfully complete all task and job performance requirements outlined in the task book. Tasks include driving and safe driving checks; apparatus inspection and safety checks; understanding of manufacturers’ recommendations; and pump operations.

The NCFD utilizes Vector Solutions as a didactic/virtual platform for department training. Vector Solutions has a robust course catalog system for fire and EMS training (among other disciplines in need of continuing education) that can be utilized to meet all federal, state, and local public safety training mandates. Its inventory is comprised of more than 450 hours of fire department training, as well as 250 hours of accredited EMS training.1 Training personnel (and really any officer or member so authorized) can post training and information materials online for personnel to reference. The training schedule is posted prominently on Vector Solutions and accessible to all personnel. Vector Solutions also provides the platform for managing all training records and reports. The use of this program will help to ensure that there is a reliable and accurate data base for tracking and retrieval of all department-level training and for recording and tracking the status of certifications for all personnel. The NCFD is one of more than 7,000 public agencies that uses Vector Solutions.2

COMMUNITY RISK REDUCTION PROGRAMS
Community risk reduction is an important undertaking of a modern-day fire department. A comprehensive fire protection system in every jurisdiction should include, at a minimum, the key functions of fire prevention, code enforcement, inspections, and public education. Preventing fires before they occur, and limiting the impact of those that do, should be priority objectives of every fire department. Fire investigation is a mission-important function of fire departments, as this function serves to determine how a fire started and why the fire behaved the way it did, providing information that plays a significant role in fire prevention efforts. Educating the public about fire safety and teaching them appropriate behaviors on how to react should they be confronted with a fire is also an important life safety responsibility of the fire department.

Fire suppression and response, although necessary to protect property, have negligible impact on preventing fire. Rather, it is public fire education, fire prevention, and built -in fire protection systems that are essential elements in protecting citizens from death and injury due to fire, smoke

1. https://www.vectorsolutions.com

2. Ibid

19 inhalation, and carbon monoxide poisoning. The fire prevention mission is of utmost importance, as it is the only area of service delivery that dedicates 100 percent of its effort to the reduction of the incidence of fire.

Fire prevention is a key responsibility of every member of the fire department, and fire prevention activities should include all personnel. On-duty personnel can be assigned with the responsibility for “in-service” inspections to identify and mitigate fire hazards in buildings, to familiarize firefighters with the layout of buildings, identify risks that may be encountered during firefighting operations, and to develop pre-fire plans. On-duty personnel in many departments are also assigned responsibility for permit inspections and public fire safety education activities.

Fire prevention should be approached in a truly systematic manner, and many community stakeholders have a personal stake and/or responsibility in these endeavors. It has been estimated that a significant percentage of all the requirements found in building/construction and related codes are related in some way to fire protection and safety. Various activities such as plan reviews, permits, and inspections are often spread among different departments in the municipal government and are often not coordinated nearly as effectively as they should be.

Every effort should be made to ensure these activities are managed effectively be tween departments.

The Fire Prevention Division in the NCFD is commanded by the Fire Marshal. In addition to the Fire Marshal, the office is staffed with a Deputy Fire Marshal and two Fire Inspectors. Together, these positions administer the fire code inspection program, fire plan reviews, weed abatement program, fire permitting, and public education mission of the department. The Fire Prevention Division works closely with the city’s Community Development Department concerning matters of fire protection and relevant plan reviews, and fire code enforcement when building code issues are identified.

At the time of this analysis the City of National City and NCFD were utilizing the following fire and building codes:
■ California Fire Code, 2019 edition.
■ California Building Code, 2019 edition.
■ California Mechanical Code.
■ California Electrical Code.
■ California Plumbing Code.
■ Uniform Housing Code.
■ California Energy Code.
■ California Green Buildings Standard Code.
■ California Residential Code.

In addition to state statutes and adopted fire and building codes, Chapter 400 of the NCFD Fire Services Manual outlines department policies for fire prevention, permit fees, fire in vestigation, public education, and associated Community Risk Reduction programs. These policies are comprehensive and are a best practice.

20 There are 2,700 inspectable occupancies in the city. For 2019 and 2020 the fire inspection division conducted the following number of inspections:
■ 2020: 599 (COVID impact affected total).
■ 2019: 992.

The Fire Marshal and staff complete required annual occupancy inspections to Assembly, Institutional, and High-Hazard occupancies as required. Additionally, the Fire Marshal’s Office inspects those occupancies involving a complaint, and all occupancies issued a new Business License to operate in the city. All other occupancy types are inspected once every three years to the extent possible. This type of inspection plan is typical in smaller agencies with minimal staffing. The plans review function typically conducted in-house in the Fire Marshal’s Office is contracted out to a third party due to current workload, which is also common in smaller community risk reduction offices.

There are many reasons why existing buildings should be inspected for fire code compliance.

The obvious purpose is to ensure that occupants of the building are living, working, or occupying a building that is safe for them to do so. Some buildings are required to have specific inspections conducted based on the type of occupancy and the use of the building such as but not limited to healthcare facilities (hospitals, nursing homes, etc.), schools, restaurants, and places of assembly. These inspections are mandated by various statutes, ordinances, and codes. Fire inspections can also identify violations and lead to follow-up inspections to ensure that violations are addressed and that the fire code is enforced.

In fire prevention, the term "enforcement" is most often associated with inspectors performing walk-throughs of entire facilities, looking for any hazards or violations of applicable codes.

Educating the owner to the requirements, as well as the spirit and intent, of the code can also attain positive benefits for fire and life safety. This practice also improves community and business relationships.

Taking into consideration that fire prevention activities are important and also a community - wide responsibility, the City Council adopted a city-wide self-inspection program for certain business occupancy types. Title 15.29.020 of the city code of ordinances establishes a self- inspection program for certain occupancies B1 (business) and R1 (hotels, motels, boarding houses, congregate housing) to maintain functions necessary for the prevention of fire and for the protection of life and property from fire and panic, the city council establishes a business fire safety self-inspection program assuring that certain "B-2" and "R-1" occupancies within the city are inspected on an annual basis for fire safety.

Under the self-inspection program, and pursuant to Title 15.29.030 of the code, the owner or manager of the occupancy or person in highest authority in the occupancy shall within 30 days inspect each occupancy, complete the forms mentioned in subsection A of this section, correct all deficiencies, and return the same to the National City fire department. All deficiencies observed shall be reported on the forms and corrected prior to returning the forms to the National City fire department.

Public education is the area where the fire service will make the greatest impact on preventing fires and subsequently reducing the accompanying loss of life, injuries, and property damage through adjusting people’s attitudes and behaviors regarding fires and fire safety. The NCFD does not have a comprehensive public fire education program due to the current inspection workload, and the effort it is able to commit is commendable and results in time and resources well spent. A substantial percentage of all fires, fire deaths, and injuries occur in the home, an area where code enforcement and inspection programs have little to no jurisdiction. The NCFD

21 provides community fire extinguisher training, conducts a juvenile fire setter program, and provides community fire prevention classes when requested.

The investigation of the cause and origin of fires is also an important part of a comprehensive fire prevention system. Determining the cause of fires can help with future prevention efforts.

Battalion Chiefs and Captains initiate the fire origin and cause determination process by NCFD policy 402.5. When possible, they can and should make the origin and cause determination.

When needed, particularly when the on-scene officers cannot determine the origin and cause of the fire, or they believe a crime has been committed, the Fire Marshal or fire investigator responds to perform an in-depth investigation.

§ § §

22 SECTION 3. ALL-HAZARDS RISK ASSESSMENT

OF THE COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY RISKS
Population and Community Growth
The 2020 U.S. Census determined the population of National City is 56,173. This is a 4 percent decrease from the 2010 population of 58,582. As the city land area is about 7.28-square miles, the population density based on Census population data is 8,050/square mile.3 In terms of fire and EMS risk, the age and socio-economic profiles of a population can have an impact on the number of requests for fire and EMS services. Evaluation of the number of seniors and children by fire management zones can provide insight into trends in service delivery and quantitate the probability of future service requests. In a 2021 National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) report on residential fires, the following key findings were identified for the period 2015–2019:4
■ Males were more likely to be killed or injured in home fires than females and accounted for larger percentages of victims (57 percent of the deaths and 55 percent of the injuries). ■ The largest number of deaths (19 percent) in a single age group was among people ages 55 to 65.
■ 59 percent of the victims of fatal home fires were between the ages of 39 and 74, and three of every five (62 percent) of the non-fatally injured were between the ages of 25 and 64. ■ Slightly over one-third (36 percent) of the fatalities were age 65 or older; only 17 percent of the non-fatally injured were in that age group.
■ Children under the age of 15 accounted for 11 percent of the home fire fatalities and 10 percent of the injuries. Children under the age of 5 accounted for 5 percent of the deaths and 4 percent of the injuries.
■ Adults of all ages had higher rates of non-fatal fire injuries than children. ■ Smoking materials were the leading cause of home fire deaths overall (23 percent) with cooking ranking a close second (20 percent).
■ The highest percentage of fire fatalities occurred while the person was asleep or physically disabled and not in the area of fire origin, which are key factors to vulnerable populations.

In National City the following age and socio-economic factors are considered when assessing and determining risk for fire and EMS preparedness and response: 5 ■ Children under the age of five represent 5.5 percent of the population. ■ Persons under the age of 18 represent 20.6 percent of the population.

3. U.S. Census Bureau Quick Facts, National City, California.

4. M. Ahrens, R. Maheshwari “Home Fire Victims by Age and Gender,” Quincy, MA: NFPA, 2021.

5. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/nationalcityCalifornia

23 ■ Persons over the age of 65 represent 13.4 percent of the population. ■ Female persons represent 49.5 percent of the population. ■ There are 3.33 persons per household in National City. ■ The median household income in 2019 dollars is $47,119. ■ Persons living in poverty make up 18.3 percent of the population. ■ Black or African-American alone represents 4.8 percent of the population. The remaining percentage of population by race includes White alone at 64.6 percent, American Indian or Alaska Native alone at 0.5 percent, Asian alone at 18.5 percent, two or more races at 3.0 percent, and Hispanic or Latino at 63.5 percent.

Estimated build-out in National City is discussed in two ways in the city’s 2011 General Plan. The plan first contemplates build-out based on allowable denisities, and if all open land is utilized. As this is unlikely to occur, the 2011 Genaral Plan discusses build-out assumptions by 2030 on vacant or underutilized parcels near sites that are likely to redevelop within the city considering site and other development constraints. These assumptions are:6
■ 5,091 new dwelling units.
■ 20,362 new residents.
■ 2.6 million square feet of new retail/office space.
■ 3.2 million square feet of new industrial space.7
Regardless of the build-out in the city, an increase in population, the type of housing units (multi- family, vertical density etc.) built, and the type of industry and retail space have impacts on call demand and increases building risks as outlined further in this section.

Environmental Factors
The City of National City is prone to and will continue to be exposed to certain environmental hazards that may impact the community. The most common natural hazards prevelant to the city according to the National City Emergency Operations Plan (EOP), and that create environmental risks are:
■ Earthquakes: National City is in proximity to local faults such as the Rose Canyon Fault and that are potential risks to older structures (structural integrity and collapse causing natural gas leaks, fires, and trapping residents); potential for loss of life, injuries, and damage to property, as well as disruption to infrastructure and services. According to the San Diego County Multi- Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan, the city has had no repetitive loss from earthquake risks. ■ Dam Failure: National City is proximity to and downstream from the Sweetwater Dam. Dam inundation to property and infrastructure in and adjacent to the Sweetwater River channels exists. The National City EOP considers the likelihood of dam failure to be low due to the construction features of the dam; however, it still poses an environmental risk. According to the San Diego County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan, the city has had no repetitive loss from dam failure risks.
■ Floods: According to the National City EOP, significant portions of the City are within FEMA mapped 100-year floodplains, thus posing a risk of flooding. Urban and flash flooding can

6. National City 2011 General Plan.

7. Ibid.

24 occur during heavy rain events. According to the San Diego County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan, the city has minimal (two) repetitive losses from flood risks. ■ Tsunami: Coastal land areas on the east and west coasts of the United States are susceptible to tsunami events that create significant coastal flooding. According to the San Diego County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan, the city has had no repetitive loss from Tsu nami risks. ■ Extreme Heat: Increased risk of medical complications from increased temperatures. ■ Drought: Periods of prolonged drought may limit water supply available to the region .8 9 The following table describes the potential hazard-related exposure and loss from environmental risks in National City, as detailed by the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services for the San Diego County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan.

TABLE 3-1: Environmental Risks: Potential Hazard and Loss in National City

Note: *Represents best data available at time of analysis

8. 2020 National City Emergency Operations Plan.

9. 2018 San Diego County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan.

25 Building and Target Hazards
A community risk and vulnerability assessment will evaluate the community, and regarding buildings, it will review all buildings and the risks associated with each property segregating the property as either a high-, medium-, or low-hazard depending on factors such as the life and building content hazard, and the potential fire flow and staffing required to mitigate an emergency in the specific property. According to the NFPA Fire Protection Handbook, these hazards are defined as:

High-hazard occupancies: Schools, hospitals, nursing homes, explosives plants, refineries, high- rise buildings, and other high life-hazard (vulnerable population) or large fire-potential occupancies.

Medium-hazard occupancies: Apartments, offices, and mercantile and industrial occupancies not normally requiring extensive rescue by firefighting forces.

Low-hazard occupancies: One-, two-, or three-family dwellings and scattered small business and industrial occupancies.10
The predominant building type/building risk in National City is single-family detached dwellings (low-hazard). The primary construction type for residential structures is Type V-B, which does not require a fire resistance rating for any of the building elements (typically wood frame).

Multifamily, apartments, and condominiums (vertical density) represent a large percent of the city’s housing stock. Typical construction is mixed and includes fire resistive, ordinary, non-fire resistive, wood frame with one-hour fire rating, and protected combustible. Some apartment and condominium complexes include a multibuilding footprint. The city has an assortment of manufactured homes as well (small percentage), which are typically made of light metal/wood construction with various exterior coverings. Of greater risk is the vertical housing that exists in the city, which not only creates much higher occupant density, but also requires greater response resources if a fire breaks out, particularly to manage the life safety component, even in cold smoke conditions.

The strip mall inventory consists of non-fire resistive, fire resistive (one-hour fire rating), and protected combustible construction (one-hour fire rating). The commercial/industrial structure building inventory is ordinary (block/brick) construction, wood frame with composite sidi ng, and masonry non-combustible.

National City has the following building types:
■ Single-family homes, 9,507 (highest total building count at 53.9 percent).11 ■ Multifamily units (apartments, condomuniums, some vertical), 7,636 units (43.3 percent).12 ■ Manufactured homes, 416.13
■ Professional business, single and multi-story.
■ Commercial and industrial buildings.

10. Cote, Grant, Hall & Solomon, eds., Fire Protection Handbook (Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association, 2008), 12.

11. Census Reporter, National City, Calif.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

National City has at least 167 commercial
buildings of which 56 have ISO fire flows of
2000 gpm or higher and 13 that have fire
flows of 3,500 gpm or higher.

Source: 2009 National City Standard of Cover-
Citygate Assoc. LLC

26 ■ Strip malls.
■ Assisted living/long-term care buildings/homes (multiple facilities and homes in the city). ■ Public education structures (elementary, junior, and high school buildings). ■ Public government buildings.
■ High-rise buildings.

The next figure illustrates the existing land use map for the city, which indicates the type of building risk and its general location, along with two aerial views of the landscape that illustrate further the building types and risk.14
FIGURE 3-1: National City Existing Land Use Map

14. National City 2011 General Plan.

27 In terms of identifying target hazards, consideration must be given to the activities that take place (public assembly, life safety vulnerability, manufacturing, processing, etc.), the number and types of occupants (elderly, youth, handicapped etc.), and other specific aspects related to the construction of the structure. National City has more than 2,700 occupancies that the NCFD considers target hazards such as:
■ High-rise target hazards (life safety) of which there are mixed occupancy types and include housing units.
■ Hospital/medical center target hazard (Paradise Valley Hospital). ■ Educational/school/public assembly target hazard (life safety). ■ Mercantile/business/industrial (life safety, hazardous storage and or processes). ■ Long-term and assisted care target hazards (life safety, vulnerable population). ■ Government business target hazards (life safety, continuity of operations). ■ Private business target hazards (life safety).

The following figure illustrates the location of high-rise building risks in the city.

FIGURE 3-2: High-Rise Building Risk Locations

28 The city has a mix of low- and medium-risk structures that make up the majority of the target hazard risk. High-hazard/high rise building risks are noted in this section as well.

Building risks, associated population, and other factors as discussed include assisted/long-term care facilities, residential structures housing a vulnerable population, hospital/medical center, residential structures more than three stories in height, public assembly structures when occupied, and those mercantile occupancies that have hazardous materials used in processes or that are stored in large quantities.

Future growth calls for vertical density (multifamily/unit) structures to include a 22-story building.

The building risk outside of single-family dwellings, particularly those of multi-unit and multi-story residential buildings pose additional firefighting risk in terms of life safety, ability to reach the seat of the fire quickly, and assembling an Effective Response Force needed to mi tigate an emergency in structures such as these. Even small fires in these structures create cold smoke issues for multiple units, all requiring some level of mitigation for life safety and smoke removal, or even occupant removal from and by the fire department.

The city also has a potential future risk that is worth noting here. USD Clean Fuels and Plastic Express (USDCF/PEX) are working with the city to locate a biofuels transloading site on the current Pacific Steel property site in the city. This site is situated west of the I-5 corridor in the industrial section of the city and east of the Port of San Diego property (see the next figure). This site will include transloading of biofuels onto rail tank cars and tractor trailer tank trucks. The project is designed with many safety features and will meet state building and fire prevention codes. Fuel transloading, hazardous materials, and transportation risks (rail, rail at-grade crossings, road transportation) discussed herein will be present with this facility.

FIGURE 3-3: USDCF/PEX Biofuels Transloading Project Location

29 Transportation Factors
The road network in National City is typical of cities in the region. In National City this includes freeways, which are high-speed, high capacity, and of limited access; arterial streets, which carry high volumes of traffic and are typically four lanes with synchronized signals; collector streets, which provide connection to arterial roads and local street networks as well as residential and commercial land uses; and local streets, which provide a direct road network to property and move traffic through neighborhoods and business communities. 15 At the time of the 2011 General Plan, the city had 110 miles of paved roads, with 15 arterial and 30 collector roads. National City has also designated certain truck routes (primary and alternate) designed to route trucks to and from their likely business destinations and to major freeways . The following figure illustrates the National City transportation road network.

FIGURE 3-4: National City Road Network

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) operates fixed bus routes in the city. There are ten bus routes with 205 individual bus stops. The city also has an MTS trolley line (Blue Line) that runs from San Diego City to the U.S.-Mexico Border. There are two stops in National City.

According to the March 2021 Transportation Elements Draft Report, National City residents rely more on public transportation such as the MTS bus and trolley systems than other commuters in San Diego County. Bus and trolley accidents during populated rides pose a mass casualty response risk if multiple riders are injured.

Active railroad lines other than the trolley system are also present in the city. The primary active rail lines are the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and the San Diego and Imperial Valley Railway (SDIV). These rail lines operate on and share track right-of-way with the MTS trolley system. SDIV trains are operated primarily at night along the main line when the trolley service is not operating. This includes to and from the port and to and from other destinations. The primary

15. National City 2011 General Plan.

30 commodities hauled by the SDIV are petroleum products, agricultural products, and wood pulp.

Other commodities transported in and through National City are automobiles and containers originating through the Port of San Diego. While not all these commodities may be considered hazardous materials, fires involving these commodities can produce smoke and other products of combustion risks that may be hazardous to health. Hazardous materials themselves present hazards to health risks if being transported and involved in a rail accident. At-grade crossings exist in the city and pose transportation accident risks.

The next figure illustrates the National City mass transit system.

FIGURE 3-5: National City Mass Transit System

The road and transportation network described herein poses risks for vehicular accidents, some at medium to greater than medium speeds, as well as vehicular-versus-pedestrian risks. There are additional transportation risks since tractor-trailer and other commercial vehicles traverse the roadways of National City to deliver mixed commodities to business locations. Fires involving these products can produce smoke and other products of combustion risks that may be hazardous to health.

Port of San Diego
The Port of San Diego (Port) occupies approximately 7 percent of the city’s land area. There are significant risks on the Port property, which include:
■ Significant rail traffic on Port property and significant rail traffic not directly on Port property but that serves commercial business on Port property and travels through the city. This rail has multiple at-grade crossings which pose a traffic risk, and rail cars that transport combustibles and other hazards the NCFD will respond to and mitigate. ■ The Port property in National City has large footprint buildings that are several thousand square feet in size, and although considered single story have the ceiling height of multistory structures. These buildings have processes and storage that are combustible and hazardous.

Larger footprint buildings pose additional building risks to the NCFD in terms of mass storage of commodities and hazardous/combustible materials utilized in work processes, and

Multiple active rail
sidings/track and
at-grade crossings.

31 considerable waterflow requirements based on the size of the building footprint, commodities stored, and mercantile processes being conducted.

These buildings are typically built of fire resistive structural members and are sprinklered, but contain internally combustible accessories, materials, storage, processes, and internal structures. While the life-safety hazard normally will not require extensive rescue by firefighting forces (in terms of the number of people on premises at one time to be rescued), the sco pe and complications of the larger footprint to be covered by initial attack lines and in a search and rescue undertaking raise these types of structures to a high-hazard building risk. ■ The Port property has other commercial and mercantile properties, although not large footprint buildings, which pose building and property risk due to the on-site storage (lumber, petroleum products, vehicles, hazardous materials) as well as business processes and storage in the interior of property buildings that are combustible and hazardous. Not all of these buildings have fire protection systems. These buildings are of medium to high risk based on building/property content. These occupancies also support heavy vehicles that move product to and from these properties, posing traffic and hazard risks. Included on Port property is a small retail/restaurant area with significant private vessel docking and boat marina slips. ■ Proposed additions to Port property include:
□ Hydrogen Processing Plant south of the Pasha property. If this project is realized, this will be the largest hydrogen processing plant in the nation, according to NCFD staff. Transport of this product will be by marine, rail, and over-the-road vehicles. This facility will be of high/special risk hazard, and all transportation modes will be of high/special risk as well. □ Hotel(s), restaurants, RV Park. Each of these brings certain building and life-safety risks. Hotels are of a higher risk as they include vertical density. Restaurants are assembly classifications, which raise the life-safety risk when occupied. RV parks, although seemingly a low or no risk hazard, actually are, in that RVs are combustible and when on fire burn rather rapidly because of the interior combustibles. There is also the hazard of on-board fuel (gasoline or diesel fuels, and pressurized gas for cooking). One additional risk is proximity from RV to RV, which creates exposure hazards (when one RV is on fire it typically spreads to another exposed RV).

The next figure illustrates the Port property within National City boundaries.

32 FIGURE 3-6: Port of San Diego in National City

Fire and Fire-Related Risk
An indication of the community’s fire risk is the type and number of fire-related incidents the fire department responds to. CPSM conducted a data analysis for this project that analyzed NCFD incident responses and workload.

The following table details the call types and call type totals for these types of fire-related risks for 2019 and 2020.

Potential Site for Hydrogen
Processing/Generation Facility

33 TABLE 3-2: Fire Call Types, 2019 and 2020
Call Type
2019 2020
Total
Calls
Calls per
Day
Total
Calls
Calls per
Day
False alarm 318 0.9 216 0.6
Good intent 56 0.2 81 0.2
Hazard 48 0.1 33 0.1
Outside fire 125 0.3 162 0.4
Public service 121 0.3 139 0.4
Structure fire 31 0.1 29 0.1
Fire Total 699 1.9 660 1.8

EMS Risk
As with fire risks, an indication of the community’s pre-hospital emergency medical risk is the type and number of EMS calls to which the fire department responds. The following table outlines the call types and call type totals for these types of EMS risks.

TABLE 3-3: EMS Call Types, 2019 and 2020
Call Type
2019 2020
Total
Calls
Calls per
Day
Total
Calls
Calls per
Day
Breathing difficulty 722 2.0 674 1.8
Cardiac and stroke 779 2.1 740 2.0
Fall and injury 999 2.7 952 2.6
Illness and other 1,344 3.7 1,303 3.6
MVA 407 1.1 349 1.0
Overdose and psychiatric 151 0.4 171 0.5
Seizure and unconsciousness 738 2.0 620 1.7
EMS Total 5,140 14.1 4,809 13.1

National City utilizes a private EMS service for EMS transport, which is discussed in a sep erate section in this report. Here though, we show the EMS transport demand by the private EMS service, which links to the overall EMS risk factor in National City. The next two tables descibe the EMS ground transport demand in the city for 2019 and 2020.

§ § §

34 TABLE 3-4: AMR Calls by Call Type, 2019 and 2020
Call Type Number of Calls Calls per Day
2019 2020 2019 2020
Breathing difficulty 815 758 2.2 2.1
Cardiac and stroke 881 864 2.4 2.4
Fall and injury 1,296 1,229 3.6 3.4
Illness and other 2,453 2,421 6.7 6.6
MVA 677 589 1.9 1.6
Overdose and psychiatric 266 286 0.7 0.8
Seizure and unconsciousness 867 726 2.4 2.0
EMS Total 7,255 6,873 19.9 18.8
Fire & FD assist 73 72 0.2 0.2
Total 7,328 6,945 20.1 19.0

TABLE 3-5: Transport Calls by Call Type by AMR EMS Service for 2019 Call Type
Number of Calls Conversion
Rate, Calls
to Transports Non-transport Transport Total
Breathing difficulty 167 648 815 79.5
Cardiac and stroke 183 698 881 79.2
Fall and injury 458 838 1,296 64.7
Illness and other 846 1,607 2,453 65.5
MVA 422 255 677 37.7
Overdose and psychiatric 116 150 266 56.4
Seizure and unconsciousness 232 635 867 73.2
EMS Transport Total 2,424 4,831 7,255 66.6

FIRE AND EMS INCIDENT DEMAND
Analyzing where the fire and EMS incidents occur, and the demand density of fire and EMS incidents, helps to determine adequate fire management zone resource assignment and deployment.

The following figures illustrate fire and EMS demand in the NCFD fire management zone. These include fire incidents (structural and outside fires); other types of fire-related incidents such as good intent and public service calls, which are calls for service such as smoke scares (no fire), wires down, lock outs, water leaks, etc.; false alarms (typically fire alarms); and EMS incident demand that includes all EMS incidents, breathing difficulty and cardiac related, and motor vehicle accidents. All demand maps are the aggregate of 2019 and 2020 responses. Demand maps labeled with “Runs” show demand of multiple NCFD unit response.

35 FIGURE 3-7: NCFD In-City Fire Incident Demand (Structure and Outside Fires) Structure Fires Outside Fires

NCFD Fire Runs
In City and
Lincoln Acres

36 FIGURE 3-8: NCFD In-City False (Fire) Alarms, Good Intent, Hazard, Public Service Call Demand False Alarms Good Intent, Hazard, Public Service Calls

NCFD Fire Runs
In City and
Lincoln Acres

37 FIGURE 3-9: NCFD In-City EMS High Acuity Demand (Breathing Difficulty, Cardiac and Stroke and MVA) Breathing Difficulty, Cardiac and Stroke Motor Vehicle Accident

NCFD EMS Runs
In City and
Lincoln Acres

38 FIGURE 3-10: NCFD In-City EMS Demand and AMR Ground Transport Demand NCFD Low-Acuity EMS Demand AMR Ground Transport Demand

NCFD EMS Runs
In City and
Lincoln Acres

39 ISO RATING
The ISO is a national, not-for-profit organization that collects and evaluates information from communities across the United States regarding their capabilities to combat building fires. ISO conducts field evaluations in an effort to rate communities and their relative ability to provide fire protection and mitigate fire risk. This evaluation allows ISO to determine and publish the Public Protection Classification (PPC). The data collected from a community is analyzed and applied to ISO’s Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS) from which a Public Protection Classification (PPC) grade is assigned to a community (1 to 10).

A Class 1 (highest classification/lowest numerical score) represents an exemplary community fire suppression program that includes all of the components outlined below. A Class 10 indicates that the community’s fire suppression program does not meet ISO's minimum criteria. It is important to understand the PPC is not just a fire department classification, but a compilation of community services that include the fire department, the emergency communications center, and the community’s potable water supply system operator. 16 The lower score indicates a more favorable rating which potentially translates into lower insurance premiums for the business owner and homeowner. This lower classification makes the community more attractive from an insurance risk perspective. How the PPC for each community affects business and homeowners can be complicated because each insurance underwriter is free to utilize the information as they deem appropriate. Overall, many factors feed into the compilation of an insurance premium, not just the PPC.

A community's PPC grade depends on:
■ Needed Fire Flows (building locations used to determine the theoretical amount of water necessary for fire suppression purposes).
■ Emergency Communications (10 percent of the evaluation). ■ Fire Department (50 percent of the evaluation).
■ Water Supply (40 percent of the evaluation).

The City of National City has an ISO rating of Class 02, the second-highest rating achievable. This rating became effective in March 2019. The final rating included the following credit by category:
■ Emergency Communications: 9.14 earned credit points/10.00 credit points available. ■ Fire Department: 40.90 earned credit points/50.00 credit points available. ■ Water Supply: 36.85 earned credit points/40.00 credit points available. ■ Community Risk Reduction (Fire Prevention/Inspection, Public Education, and Fire Investigation activities): 3.31 earned credit points/5.50 credit points available.

Overall, the community PPC rating yielded 88.14 earned credit points out of 105.50 credit points available. There was a 2.06 point diversion reduction assessed as well, which is automatically calculated based on the relative difference between the fire department and water supply scores. 80.00 points or more qualify a community for a rating of 2. National City is on the higher end of this classification.

16. NCFD ISO PPC report; March 2019.

40 The following figures illustrate the dispersion of PPC ratings across the United States and in California.

FIGURE 3-11: PPC Ratings in the United States17

FIGURE 3-12: PPC Ratings in California18

Areas of scoring that should be reviewed further internally by the city and the NCFD , and which can have the most impact on individual areas evaluated and scored and that subsequently affect total section scoring include:

17. https://www.isomitigation.com/ppc/program-works/facts-and-figures-about-ppc-codes-around-the- country/

18. Ibid.

41 ■ Training: #581(H) Pre-Fire Planning Inspections (0.35/12 credits) □ For maximum credit, pre-fire planning inspections of each commercial, industrial, institutional, and other similar type building (all buildings except one- to four-family dwellings) should be made annually by company members. Pre-fire planning inspections are company level walk-throughs of commercial, industrial, institutional, hotels/motels, and larger footprint buildings to become familiar with floor plans, hose connections, means of egress, concentrations of population, hazardous materials storage, and the like. Typically fire departments have templates they fill in while conducting these pre-fire plan inspections that include pertinent owner/occupant information, sketched floor plans, hydrant locations, fire department connections, elevator locations, hazardous storage, or process locations in the building etc. Another purpose of a pre-fire plan is its use when an actual incident is occurring at the target hazard site or building. In this case the incident commander has at his/her disposal vital information that he/she can reference when making incident decisions.

A record of inspections is important as well to gain appropriate credits. ■ Water Supply: #630, #631 Credit for Inspection and Flow Testing (1.60/7.00 credits). □ This item contemplates fire hydrant inspection and testing frequency in the city, and the completeness of the inspections, to include documentation. This score indicates the hydrants have not been inspected or flow tested on a regular basis. ■ Communty Risk Reduction: #1025 Credit for Fire Prevention Code Adoption and Enforcement. □ Evaluation of Fire Prevention Staffing (3.23/8.0 credits). ■ Communty Risk Reduction: #1044 Credit for Fire Investigation Programs (7.40/20.0 credits).

Recommendation:
■ CPSM recommends the NCFD review and address, to the extent possible, deficiencies in the current ISO Public Protection Classification report (Fire Department Section) as outlined in this analysis. This includes, and given the identified building risks in the city, ensuring company personnel conduct (and document for future ISO reviews) some level of commercial, industrial, institutional, and other similar type buildings (all buildings except one- to four-family dwellings) familiarization and pre-plan information gathering; work with Sweetwater Authority to ensure the fire hydrants are inspected and flow-tested on a more regular basis; address Community Risk Reduction staffing and make adjustments to staffing to ensure current (and future) inspectable properties (2,700 total current) are receiving annualized (where required) inspections, and those not requiring annualized inspections receive timely inspections in accordance with applicable laws and standards, and as established by the Fire Marshal.

Addressing the Community Risk Reduction deficiency will require additional staffing, to the extent possible with available funding, which has an estimated cost of $87,500 to $117,000 per Community Risk Reduction inspector, dependent on placement in the pay range. (Recommendation No. 5.)

42 COMMUNITY LOSS AND SAVE INFORMATION
Fire loss is an estimation of the total loss from a fire to the structure and contents in terms of replacement. Fire loss includes contents damaged by fire, smoke, water, and overhaul. Fire loss does not include indirect loss, such as business interruption.

In a 2021 report published by the National Fire Protection Association on trends and patterns of U.S. fire losses, it was determined that home fires still cause the majority of all civilian fire deaths, civilian injuries, and property loss due to fire. Key findings from this report include:19 ■ Public fire departments responded to 1,338,500 fires in 2020, a 7.5-percent increase from the previous year.
■ 490,500 fires occurred in structures (37 percent). Of these fires, 379,500 occurred is residential structures and 86,000 occurred in apartments or multifamily structures. ■ 2,230 civilian fire deaths occurred in residential fires, and 350 deaths occurred in apartments or multifamily structures.
■ Home fires were responsible for 11,500 civilian injuries. ■ An estimated $21.9 billion in direct property damage occurred as a result of fire in 2020 (includes fires in the California Wildland Urban Interface and a large loss naval ship fire in California).

The next table describes National City fire loss in terms of dollars for the years indicated.

TABLE 3-6: Content and Property Loss, Structure and Outside Fires, 2016–2020 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
$870,370 $963,900 $440,050 $1,406,30020 $522,760

AUTOMATIC-MUTUAL AID
The NCFD primarily receives and provides fire services automatic aid with:
■ San Diego City Fire Department.
■ Bonita-Sunnyside Fire Protection District.
■ Chula Vista City Fire Department.

The primary purpose of automatic aid is the response of primary units to multi-company response incidents regardless of jurisdiction, where another jurisdiction may be closer by location, and to supplement an intial alarm assignment, particularly to multi-unit responses, to ensure an Effective Reponse Force is assmbled to mitigate the incident.

The next table illustrates the response metrics for certain fire structural fire responses in the metro San Diego region. The NCFD staffs two engines, one truck, and one quick response squad. By the metrics in the next table, it can be seen that the NCFD relies heavily on automatic aid from surrounding fire departments.

19. Fire Loss in the United States During 2020, National Fire Protection Association.

20. Includes fire loss of $1,077,500 in category 14b. Fires in Other Vehicles (planes, trains, ships, construction, or farm vehicles, etc.).

43 TABLE 3-7: San Diego Metro Zone Response Plan Matrix

The next table depicts the aid NCFD received from neighboring departments where the unit actually arrived on scene in National City.

TABLE 3-8: Aid Received Actual Arrivals by Agency, First Due Area, 2019 and 2020
Agency
2019 2020
First Due Area Total First Due Area Total 31 34 31 34
Bonita FD 75 0 75 61 1 62
Coronado FD 0 1 1 0 0 0
Chula Vista FD 95 131 226 121 159 280
Lemon Grove FD 0 0 0 0 1 1
San Diego FD 326 207 533 372 257 629
Total 496 339 835 554 418 972

The next three tables detail the responses that National City provided to areas outside of the municipal boundaries in 2019 and 2020.

44 TABLE 3-9: Aid Given Workload, Actual Arrival by NCFD, 2019 and 2020 District 2019 2020
Calls Runs Hours Calls Runs Hours
San Diego City 1,323 1,495 494.5 1,328 1,525 541.6
Chula Vista 699 864 225.1 653 813 224.8
San Diego County 101 105 56.8 77 83 45.1
Imperial Beach 21 21 4.5 21 25 5.8
Coronado 7 9 4.4 10 13 5.6
Lemon Grove 3 3 0.5
Fresno County * 1 3 752.9
Total 2,154 2,497 785.7 2,090 2,462 1,575.7

One area of particular interest is Lincoln Acres. While not officially part of National City, it is an unincorporated area of San Diego County that is entirely enclosed within National City’s boundaries, and to which the NCFD provides initial response. Lincoln Acres has been included in all prior workload tables for NCFD. The next table calls out specifically the NCFD workload in Lincoln Acres.

TABLE 3-10: Calls and Workload in Lincoln Acres by Call Type, 2019 and 2020 Call Type 2019 2020
Calls Hours Runs Calls Hours Runs
Breathing difficulty 16 20.7 34 16 23.7 35
Cardiac and stroke 19 30.7 46 21 27.7 48
Fall and injury 16 23.9 35 15 24.4 34
Illness and other 23 31.4 54 31 42.6 67
MVA 23 30.4 74 31 30.4 93
OD 2 2.0 4 6 6.6 13
Seizure and UNC 14 19.7 29 15 23.2 31
EMS Total 113 158.8 276 135 178.6 321
False alarm 5 1.8 9 5 7.0 15
Good intent 3 2.6 5 6 5.1 24
Hazard 1 0.1 1 4 2.3 10
Outside fire 5 5.6 20 7 12.5 20
Public service 5 1.6 6 3 0.9 3
Structure fire 4 42.0 36 0 0.0 0
Fire Total 23 53.8 77 25 27.7 72
Canceled 28 23.7 77 41 34.9 100
Total 164 236.2 430 201 241.2 493

Another area of particular interest is Paradise Hills, an urban neighborhood in the southeast portion of the City of San Diego, and to which the NCFD provides automatic aid on a regular basis. The next table shows the workload of the NCFD into Paradise Hills.

45 TABLE 3-11: Calls and Workload in Paradise Hills by Call Type. 2019 and 2020 Call Type 2019 2020
Calls Hours Runs Calls Hours Runs
Breathing difficulty 95 31.3 95 110 45.1 111
Cardiac and stroke 116 46.2 116 107 48.2 108
Fall and injury 91 31.6 94 99 36.2 102
Illness and other 120 47.6 128 127 48.2 128
MVA 17 8.3 20 23 7.5 28
OD 7 2.2 7 14 5.9 14
Seizure and UNC 93 39.9 94 73 28.8 73
EMS Total 539 207.3 554 553 219.9 564
False alarm 19 7.1 19 21 5.9 26
Good intent 2 0.4 2 7 1.4 7
Hazard 3 1.7 6 4 19.3 9
Outside fire 6 3.2 6 6 2.6 9
Public service 9 2.6 9 7 2.8 7
Structure fire 12 7.5 18 13 6.8 20
Fire Total 51 22.5 60 58 38.8 78
Canceled 73 12.3 99 93 19.1 129
Total 663 242.0 713 704 277.9 771

Key takeaways from the auto/mutual aid response data tells us:
■ The NCFD receives the largest number of auto/mutual aid responses from the City of San Diego, and provides the greatest amount of response aid to San Digo by a greater than a 2 to 1 ratio. The NCFD serves as the de facto fire department for Paradise Hills in San Diego. ■ The NCFD also provides response aid to Chula Vista at a greater than 2 to 1 ratio.

The importance of auto/mutual aid cannot be stressed enough, particularly for small fire departments that have the population density, building, and hazard risks such as that in National City, and which do not have the ability to assemble an Effective Response Force with on-duty equipment and staffing. However, where the NCFD is the de facto fire department for San Diego City for the Paradise Hills district, this goes beyond the concept of automatic/mutual aid.

The next figure shows the demand areas for auto/mutual aid provided by the NCFD as described in the tables above.

46 FIGURE 3-13: NCFD Structure and Outside Fire Auto/Mutual Aid Demand Map (Out of City)

FIGURE 3-14: NCFD EMS Auto/Mutual Aid Demand Map (Out of City)

Paradise
Hills
Paradise
Hills

47 RESILIENCY
Resiliency as defined by the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE) in the Fire and Emergency Service Self-Assessment Manual (FESSAM), Ninth Edition, is: “An organization’s ability to quickly recover from an incident or events, or to adjust easily to changing needs or requirements.” Greater resiliency can be achieved by constant review and analysis of the response system and focuses on three key components:
■ Resistance: The ability to deploy only resources necessary to control an incident and bring it t o termination safely and effectively.
■ Absorption: The ability of the agency to quickly add or duplicate resources necessary to maintain service levels during heavy call volume or incidents of high resource demand. ■ Restoration: The agency’s ability to quickly return to a state of normalcy.

Resistance is controlled by the NCFD through staffing and response protocol, and with NCFD resources dependent on the level of staffing and units available at the time of the alarm.

Absorption is accomplished through availability to respond by NCFD units and through regional auto aid resources. This is aided through the computer-aided dispatch at the regional fire dispatch center.

Restoration is managed by NCFD unit availability as simultaneous calls occur, the availability of regional auto aid resources, recall of staff to staff fire units during campaign events when warranted, and backfilling NCFD stations when needed through the computer-aided dispatch at the regional fire dispatch center.

The following tables and figure analyze NCFD resiliency. In this analysis, CPSM included all 9,298 calls that occurred inside and outside National City in the data analysis study period. We did this because NCFD is part of a regional auto/mutual aid system, so responses outside of the city impact resiliency of the department to respond to calls inside of the city.

TABLE 3-12: Call Workload by NCFD Units, 2019 and 2020
Station Unit Unit Type 2019 2020
Hours Runs Hours Runs
31 NCE31 Engine 915.3 3,031

8.3/day 916.6 2,989

8.2/day
NCE231 Engine 0.6 3
Total 915.9 3,034 916.6 2,989
33 NCSQ33 Squad 742.2 2,201

6.0/day 696.3 2,098

5.7/day
34 B57 Battalion 145.2 462 182.8 460
NCE34 Engine 1,011.5 3,495

9.6/day 1,711.0 3,152

8.6/day
NCE234 Engine 10.8 1 113.3 368
NCT34 Truck 280.0 1,046

2.9/day 275.9 935

2.6/day
Total 1,447.5 5,004 2,282.9 4,915
Total 3,105.6 10,239 3,895.8 10,002

48 FIGURE 3-15: Calls by Hour of Day

TABLE 3-13: Trend of Frequency of Overlapping Calls
Station Scenario Number of
Calls
Percent of
All Calls
Total
Hours
31 No overlapped call 2,862 87.1 995.8
Overlapped with one call 380 11.6 65.9
Overlapped with two calls 41 1.2 4.8
Overlapped with three calls 3 0.1 0.5
34 No overlapped call 3,289 85.3 1,048.1
Overlapped with one call 505 13.1 87.6
Overlapped with two calls 55 1.4 7.6
Overlapped with three calls 7 0.2 0.6
Overlapped with four calls 2 0.1 0.0
Outside
No overlapped call 1,968 91.4 631.1
Overlapped with one call 173 8.0 34.3
Overlapped with two calls 13 0.6 1.3

TABLE 3-14: Station Availability to Respond to Calls
Station Calls in
Area
First Due
Responded
First Due
Arrived
First Due
First
Percent
Responded
Percent
Arrived
Percent
First
31 3,063 1,430 1,347 1,270 46.7 44.0 41.5
34 3,508 2,700 2,639 2,588 77.0 75.2 73.8
Total 6,571 4,130 3,986 3,858 62.9 60.7 58.7

49 TABLE 3-15: Trend of Frequency Distribution of the Number of Calls Calls in an Hour Frequency Percentage
0 3,297 37.6
1 2,938 33.5
2 1,641 18.7
3 582 6.6
4 217 2.5
5 62 0.7
6+ 23 0.3
Total 8,760 100.0

Regarding the NCFD’s resiliency to respond to calls, analysis of these tables and figure tells us:
■ The peak call time is consistently between 10:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. ■ E34 has the highest workload in terms of runs for 2019 and 2020 followed closely by E31. ■ Overall, in 2019, all four first response units aggregately averaged 27 runs per day. In 2020, all four first response units averaged 25 runs per day.
■ 13 percent of the time the E31 fire management zone has an overlapped call. The greatest percentage of the time the zone is overlapped with one call. ■ 15 percent of the time the E34 fire management zone has an overlapped call. The greatest percentage of the time the zone is overlapped with one call. □ 9 percent of the time when a NCFD unit is on an auto/mutual aid run, their district is overlapped with a call. The greatest percentage of the time the zone is overlapped with one call.
□ Aggregately, 28 percent of the time the E31 and E34 fire management zones have an overlapped call. The greatest percentage of the time the zones are overlapped with one call.
■ 62 percent of the time one to six-plus calls occur in an hour. The greatest percent of the time (33.5 percent) one call occurs in an hour and the second gretaest percent of the time (18.7 percent) two calls occur in an hour.
■ E31 as a single apparatus station and due to the demand in this fire management zone arrived on scene in its first due district only 41.5 percent of the time. The E34 fire management zone was markedly better (73.8 percent). This is because two units (E34, T34) are available to respond out of this station.

The NCFD does have resilliency issues as detailed above. Specifically the workload of the engine companies, aggregate percent of the time each fire management zone has an overlapped call, ability to arrive first in their specific fire management zone due to being out of pos ition due to a previous call or on another call, and that over 50 percent of the day one or two calls occur in an hour that are either single appratus or multiple appratus responses.

One resiliency element the NCFD has built in is the implementation of Squad 33. This unit primarily responds to EMS and lower acuity fire calls for service, which account for a sizable percentage of calls to which the NCFD responds in the city. In 2019, Squad 33 responded to 2,201 runs (21 percent of the NCFD total) and in 2020 this unit responded to 2,098 runs (21 percent of the NCFD total). The greatest percentage of runs Squad 33 made were EMS in each year. Squad 33 did

50 respond to fire incidents as well, when available, as added staffing to assist in the assembling of an Effective Response Force.

Deploying a unit such as this for specific calls and to augment the assembling of an Effective Response Force for building fires when the unit is available, is a best practice.

When implementing this type of unit, which is designed to reduce workload on engine and ladder companies, it is important to measure its efficiency as a single responding company.

CPSM analyzed this in the following table. The NCFD Squad program is extremely efficient! In 2019 the Squad arrived with an Engine (dual response) only 8 percent of the time. In 2020 the dual response/arrival occurred on 10 percent of the calls the Squad responded to.

The next table describes the workload for Squad 33 in 2019 and 2020.

TABLE 3-16: Squad 33 Workload in 2019 and 2020

Recommendation:
■ CPSM recommends the NCFD continue with the Squad program as designed, due to the efficiencies and effectiveness this unit has produced for the city. CPSM further recommends the NCFD monitor dual responses (Squad/Engine) and make any necessary adjustments to maintain a 10 percent ratio. (Recommendation No. 6.)

Run Type
2019 2020
Dispatched Arrived Arrived with
Engine Dispatched Arrived Arrived with
Engine
Breathing difficulty 273 269 0 278 273 3
Cardiac and stroke 285 279 31 293 283 41
Fall and injury 412 406 2 380 367 6
Illness and other 433 420 10 386 362 8
MVA 86 73 25 66 59 26
OD 47 41 0 55 52 1
Seizure and UNC 237 232 5 215 213 9
EMS Total 1,773 1,720 73 1,673 1,609 94
False alarm 76 66 29 65 56 27
Good intent 12 10 2 20 16 9
Hazard 13 10 5 10 8 4
Outside fire 29 27 18 28 21 11
Public service 37 34 3 33 27 10
Structure fire 23 22 20 23 20 20
Fire Total 190 169 77 179 148 81
Canceled 229 111 9 237 90 12
Aid given 9 5 1 9 2 0
Total 2,201 2,005 160 2,098 1,849 187

51 RISK CATEGORIZATION
A comprehensive risk assessment is a critical aspect of creating standards of cover and can assist the NCFD in quantifying the risks that it faces. Once those risks are known, the department is better equipped to determine if the current response resources are sufficiently staffed, equipped, trained, and positioned.

In this component, the factors that drive the service needs are examined and then link directly to discussions regarding the assembling of an effective response force (ERF) and when contemplating the response capabilities needed to adequately address the existing risks, which encompasses the component of critical tasking.

The risks that the department faces can be natural or manufactured and may be affected by the changing demographics of the community served. With the information available from the CPSM data analysis, the NCFD, the city, and public research, CPSM and the NCFD can begin an analysis of the city’s risks and can begin working towards recommendations and strategies t o mitigate and minimize their effects. This section contains an analysis of the various risks considered within the NCFD’s service area.

Risk is often categorized in three ways: consequence of the event on the community, the probability the event will occur in the community, and the impact on the fire department. The following three tables look at the probability of the event occurring (Table 3-16) which ranges from unlikely to frequent; consequence to the community (Table 3-17), which is categorized as ranging from insignificant to catastrophic; and the impact to the organization (Table 3 -18), which ranges from insignificant to catastrophic.

TABLE 3-17: Event Probability
Probability Chance of
Occurrence Description Risk
Score
Unlikely 2%-25% Event may occur only in exceptional
circumstances. 2
Possible 26%-50%
Event could occur at some time and/or no
recorded incidents. Little opportunity, reason, or
means to occur.
4 Probable 51%-75%
Event should occur at some time and/or few,
infrequent, random recorded incidents, or little
anecdotal evidence. Some opportunity, reason, or
means to occur; may occur.
6 Highly
Probable 76%-90%
Event will probably occur and/or regular recorded
incidents and strong anecdotal evidence.

Considerable opportunity, means, reason to
occur.
8 Frequent 90%-100% Event is expected to occur. High level of recorded incidents and/or very strong anecdotal evidence. 10

52 TABLE 3-18: Consequence to Community Matrix
Impact Consequence
Categories Description Risk
Score
Insignificant Life Safety ■ 1 or 2 people affected, minor injuries, minor property damage, and no environmental impact. 2
Minor
Life Safety

Economic and
Infrastructure

Environmental
■ Small number of people affected, no fatalities, and
small number of minor injuries with first aid
treatment. Minor displacement of people for <6
hours and minor personal support required.
■ Minor localized disruption to community services or
infrastructure for <6 hours. Minor impact on
environment with no lasting effects.
4 Moderate
Life Safety

Economic and
Infrastructure

Environmental
■ Limited number of people affected (11 to 25), no
fatalities, but some hospitalization and medical
treatment required. Localized displacement of small
number of people for 6 to 24 hours. Personal support
satisfied through local arrangements. Localized
damage is rectified by routine arrangements.
■ Normal community functioning with some
inconvenience. Some impact on environment with
short-term effects or small impact on environment
with long-term effects.
6 Significant
Life Safety

Economic and
Infrastructure

Environmental
■ Significant number of people (>25) in affected area
impacted with multiple fatalities, multiple serious or
extensive injuries, and significant hospitalization.
■ Large number of people displaced for 6 to 24 hours
or possibly beyond. External resources required for
personal support. Significant damage that requires
external resources. Community only partially
functioning, some services unavailable. Significant
impact on environment with medium- to long-term
effects.
8 Catastrophic
Life Safety

Economic and
Infrastructure

Environmental
■ Very large number of people in affected area(s)
impacted with significant numbers of fatalities, large
number of people requiring hospitalization; serious
injuries with long-term effects. General and wide-
spread displacement for prolonged duration;
extensive personal support required. Extensive
damage to properties in affected area requiring
major demolition.
■ Serious damage to infrastructure. Significant
disruption to, or loss of, key services for prolonged
period.
■ Community unable to function without significant
support.
■ Significant long-term impact on environment
and/or permanent damage.
10

53 TABLE 3-19: Impact on NCFD
Impact Impact
Categories Description Risk
Score
Insignificant Personnel and
Resources
One apparatus out of service for period not to
exceed one hour. 2
Minor Personnel and
Resources
More than one but not more than two apparatus
out of service for a period not to exceed one hour. 4
Moderate Personnel and
Resources
More than 50 percent of available resources
committed to incident for over 30 minutes. 6
Significant Personnel and
Resources
More than 75 percent of available resources
committed to an incident for over 30 minutes. 8
Catastrophic
Personnel,
Resources,
and Facilities
More than 90 percent of available resources
committed to incident for more than two hours or
event which limits the ability of resources to respond. 10 This section also contains an analysis of the various risks considered in the city. In this analysis, information presented and reviewed in this section (All-Hazards Risk Assessment of the Community) have been considered. Risk is categorized as Low, Modera te, High, or Special.

Prior risk analysis has only attempted to evaluate two factors of risk: probability and consequence. Contemporary risk analysis considers the impact of each risk to the organization, thus creating a three-axis approach to evaluating risk as depicted in the following figure.

A contemporary risk analysis now includes probability, consequences to the community, and impact on the organization, in this case the NCFD.

§ § §

54 FIGURE 3-16: Three-Axis Risk Calculation (RC)

The following factors/hazards were identified and considered:
■ Demographic factors such as age, socio-economic, vulnerability. ■ Natural hazards such as flooding, wind events, wildland fires. ■ Manufactured hazards such as rail lines, roads and intersections, target hazards. ■ Structural/building risks.
■ Fire and EMS incident numbers and density.

The assessment of each factor and hazard as listed below took into consideration the likelihood of the event, the impact on the city itself, and the impact on NCFD’s ability to deliver emergency services, which includes NCFD resiliency and automatic aid capabilities as well. The list is not all inclusive but includes categories most common or that may present to the city and the NCFD.

§ § §

Magnitude of the Risk
Greater the surface area,
the greater the risk
RC=√𝑷𝑪𝟐+𝑪𝑰𝟐 + 𝑰𝑷𝟐
2 10
8 6
4 2

55 Low Risk
■ Automatic fire/false alarms.
■ Low acuity-BLS EMS Incidents.
■ Low-risk environmental event.
■ Motor vehicle accident (MVA).
■ Good intent/hazard/public service fire incidents with no life-safety exposure. ■ Outside fires such as grass, rubbish, dumpster, vehicle with no structural/life-safety exposure.

FIGURE 3-17: Low Risk

§ § §

0 2
4 6
8 10
P
CI
Low Risk

56 Moderate Risk
■ Fire incident in a single-family dwelling where fire and smoke or smoke is visible, indicating a working fire.
■ Suspicious substance investigation involving multiple fire companies and law enforcement agencies.
■ ALS EMS incident.
■ MVA with entrapment of passengers.
■ Grass/brush fire with structural endangerment/exposure. ■ Low-angle rescue involving ropes and rope rescue equipment and resources. ■ Surface water rescue.
■ Good intent/hazard/public service fire incidents with life-safety exposure. ■ Rail event with no release of product or fire, and no threat to life safety .

FIGURE 3-18: Moderate Risk

§ § §

0 2
4 6
8 10
P
CI
Moderate Risk

57 High Risk
■ Working fire in a target hazard.
■ Cardiac arrest.
■ Mass casualty incident of more than 10 patients but fewer than 25 patients. ■ Confined space rescue.
■ Structural collapse involving life-safety exposure.
■ High-angle rescue involving ropes and rope rescue equipment. ■ Trench rescue.
■ Suspicious substance incident with multiple injuries. ■ Industrial leak of hazardous materials that causes exposure to persons or threatens life safety. ■ Weather event that creates widespread flooding, heavy winds, building damage, and/or life - safety exposure.

FIGURE 3-19: High Risk

§ § §

0 2
4 6
8 10
P
CI
High Risk

58 Special Risk
■ Working fire in a structure of more than three floors. ■ Fire at an industrial building or complex with hazardous materials. ■ Fire in an occupied targeted hazard with special life-safety risks such as age, medical condition, or other identified vulnerabilities.
■ Mass casualty incident of more than 25 patients.
■ Rail or transportation incident that causes life-safety exposure or threatens life safety through the release of hazardous smoke or materials and evacuation of residential and business occupancies.
■ Explosion in a building that causes exposure to persons or threatens life safety or outside of a building that creates exposure to occupied buildings or threatens life safety. ■ Massive river/estuary flooding, fire in a correctional or medical institution, high -impact environmental event, pandemic.
■ Mass gathering with threat fire and threat to life safety or other civil unrest, weapons of mass destruction release.

FIGURE 3-20: Special Risk

§ § §

0 2
4 6
8 10
P
CI
Special Risk

59 SECTION 4. STAFFING, DEPLOYMENT, AND

PERFORMANCE
When exploring staffing and deployment of fire departments it makes the most sense to design an operational strategy around the actual circumstances that exist in the community and the fire and risk problems that are identified. The strategic and tactical challenges presented by the widely varied hazards that a fire department protects against are identified and planned for through a community risk analysis as described in this report. It is ultimately the responsibility of elected officials working closely with a local government’s senior management and Fire Chief to staff and deploy a fire department to the extent possible with available financing to manage the community risk through well-defined operational service goals.

The staffing of fire and EMS companies is a never-ending focus of attention among fire service and governmental leadership. While NFPA 1710 and OSHA provide guidelines (and to some extent the law, specifically OSHA in OSHA states) as to the level of staffing and response of personnel, the adoption of these documents varies from state to state and department to department. NFPA 1710 addresses the recommended staffing in terms of specific types of occupancies and building risks. The needed staffing to conduct the critical tasks for each specific occupancy and risk are defined as an Effective Response Force (ERF). The ERF for each of these occupancies is detailed in NFPA 1710 (2020 edition), section 5.2.4, Deployment , and further discussed in this section.

CPSM has researched and compiled eleven staffing and deployment topics we consider to be among the leading industry standards the fire service follows and utilizes when making decisions about staffing and deployment of fire resources. These are:

All-Hazard Risk Assessment of the Community: A fire department collects and organizes risk evaluation information about community risk (population and demographics; environmental; transportation; fire and EMS call demand and call types) and individual property types. The all- hazard community risk and community assessment is used to evaluate the community. With regard to individual property types, the assessment is used to measure all property and the risk associated with that property and then segregate the property as either a high -, medium-, or low-hazard risk depending on factors such as the life and building content hazard , the potential fire flow, and the staffing and apparatus types required to mitigate an emergency in the specific property. Factors such as fire protection systems are considered in each building evaluation.

Included in this assessment should be both a structural and nonstructural (weather, wildland - urban interface, transportation routes, rail, mass-transit, etc.) analysis. All factors are then analyzed and the probability of an event occurring, the impact on the fire department, and the consequences on the community are measured and scored.

Population, Demographics, and Socio-economic Factors of a Community: Population and population density is a primary driver of calls for local government service, particularly public safety. The risk from fire is not the same for everyone, with studies telling us age, gender, race, socio-economic factors, and what region in the country one might live in contribute to the risk of death from fire. Studies also tell us these same factors affect demand for EMS, such as the increased use of hospital emergency departments by uninsured or underinsured patients, who rely on emergency services for their primary and emergency care and utilize pre-hospital EMS transport systems as their entry point.

60 Call Demand: Demand is made up of the types of calls to which fire and EMS units are responding and the location of the calls. This drives workload and station staffing and apparatus considerations. Higher population centers with increased demand and building risk require greater resources.

Workload of Units: This factor involves the types of calls to which units are responding and the workload of each unit in the deployment model. This defines what resources are needed and where; it links to demand and station location, or in a dynamic deployed system, the area(s) in which to post units, and the resiliency of the fire department to respond to multiple calls for service at once or calls for service that require multiple units to respond due to the higher risk .

Travel Times from Fire Stations: Analyzes the ability to cover the fire management zone/response district in a reasonable and acceptable travel time when measured against national benchmarks such as NFPA 1710, 1720, and the ISO-FSRS engine and ladder company grading parameters. This metric links to demand, risk assessment, unit workload, and resiliency.

NFPA Standards, ISO, OSHA, State OSHA requirements (and other national benchmarking).

EMS Demand: Community demand; demand on available units and crews; hospital off-load wait times; demand on non-EMS transport units responding to calls for service (fire/police units); availability of crews in departments that utilize cross-trained EMS staff to perform fire suppression.

Critical Tasking: On-scene capabilities to control and mitigate emergencies is determined by staffing and deployment of certain resources for low-, medium-, and high-risk responses. Critical tasking is the individual or team level task that is required to be performed by on -scene personnel based on the type of incident the firefighting and EMS force is responding to. Critical tasks are to the greatest extent performed simultaneously for a more effective operation aimed at increased firefighter and the public’s safety. Those risks/incidents that require more critical tasks to be performed simultaneously drive a larger response force. An example of simultaneous critical tasking is a search and rescue crew and a ventilation crew operating while a crew or crews are advancing attack lines.

Effective Response Force: The ability of the jurisdiction to assemble the necessary personnel on the scene to perform the critical tasks necessary in rapid sequence to mitigate the emergency.

The speed, efficiency, and safety of on-scene operations are dependent upon the number of firefighters performing the tasks. If fewer firefighters are available to complete critical on-scene tasks, those tasks will require more time to complete and impact overall operations and the safety of firefighters and the public, and in some cases intensify the spread of fire or the inability to mitigate the non-fire emergency.

Innovations in Staffing and Deployable Apparatus: This is the fire department’s ability and willingness to develop and deploy innovative apparatus (combining two apparatus functio ns into one to maximize available staffing, as an example). Deploying quick response vehicles (light vehicles equipped with medical equipment and some light fire suppression capabilities) on those lower acuity calls (typically the largest percentage of calls) that do not require heavy fire apparatus.

Community Expectations: The gathering of input and feedback from the community, then measuring, understanding, and developing goals and objectives to meet community expectations.

Ability to Fund: The community’s understanding of, and its ability and willingness to fund fire and EMS services, while considering how budgetary revenues are divided up to meet all community’s expectations.

61 NFPA 1710 AND TWO-IN/TWO-OUT
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards are consensus standards; they are not mandates nor are they the law. Many cites and countries strive to achieve these standards to the extent possible without causing an adverse fiscal impact to the community and use these standards as benchmarks and service delivery goals.

NFPA 1710 outlines organization and deployment of operations by career, and primarily career fire and rescue organizations.21 It serves as a benchmark to measure staffing and deployment of resources to certain structures and emergencies.

According to NFPA 1710, fire departments should base their capabilities on a formal all-hazards community risk assessment, as discussed earlier in this report, and taking into consideration: 22 ■ Life hazard to the population protected.
■ Provisions for safe and effective firefighting performance conditions for the firefighters. ■ Potential property loss.
■ Nature, configuration, hazards, and internal protection of the properties involved. ■ Types of fireground tactics and evolutions employed as standard procedure, type of apparatus used, and results expected to be obtained at the fire scene.

According to NFPA 1710, if a community follows this standard, engine and ladder companies shall be staffed with a minimum of four on-duty members.23 Additional staffing parameters in this standard for engine and ladder companies is based on geographical isolation and tactical hazards, and increases each to five or six as a minimum.24 This staffing configuration is designed to ensure a fire department can efficiently assemble an effective response force for each risk the department may encounter and complete the critical tasking necessary on building fires and other emergency incidents simultaneously to the extent possible. NFPA 1710 permits fire departments to use established automatic aid and mutual aid agreements to comply with the assembling of on-scene personnel to complete critical tasks as outlined in the standard.

Another consideration, and one that links to critical tasking and assembling an effective response force, is that of two-in/two-out regulations. Essentially, prior to starting any fire attack in an immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH) environment [with no confirmed rescue in progress], the initial two-person entry team shall ensure that there are sufficient resources on- scene to establish a two-person initial rapid intervention team (IRIT) located outside of the building.

This critical tasking model has its genesis with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, specifically 29 CFR 1910.134(g)(4). The California State Plan also applies to state and local government employers. Federal OSHA covers the issues not covered by the California State Plan.25 The federal rule (29 CFR 1910.134(g)(4)) applies to the NCFD.

21. NFPA 1710 is a nationally recognized standard, but it has not been adopted as a mandatory regulation by the federal government or the State of California. It is a valuable resource for establishing and measuring performance objectives for the City of National City but should not be the only determining factor when making local decisions about the city’s fire services.

22. NFPA 1710, 5.2.1.1, 5.2.2.2

23. NFPA 1710, 5.2.3.1.1; 5.2.3.2.1

24. NFPA 1710, 5.2.3.1.2, 5.2.3.1.2.1.,5.2.3.2.2.,5.3.2.3.2.2.1

25. California State Plan | Occupational Safety and Health Administration (osha.gov)

62 CFR 1910.134: Procedures for interior structural firefighting. The employer shall ensure that:
(i) At least two employees enter the IDLH atmosphere and remain in visual or voice contact with one another at all times;
(ii) At least two employees are located outside the IDLH atmosphere; and (iii) All employees engaged in interior structural firefighting use SCBAs.26 According to the standard, one of the two individuals located outside the IDLH atmosphere may be assigned to an additional role, such as incident commander in charge of the emergency or safety officer, so long as this individual is able to perform assistance or rescue activities without jeopardizing the safety or health of any firefighter working at the incident.

NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Health, Safety, and Wellness , 2021 Edition, has similar language as CFR 1910.134(g)(4) to address the issue of two-in/two-out, stating the initial stages of the incident where only one crew is operating in the hazardous area of a working structural fire, a minimum of four individuals shall be required consisting of two members working as a crew in the hazardous area and two standby members present outside this hazard area available for assistance or rescue at emergency operations where entry into the danger area is required.27
NFPA 1500 also speaks to the utilization of the two-out personnel in the context of the health and safety of the firefighters working at the incident. The assignment of any personnel including the incident commander, the safety officer, or operations of fire apparatus, shall not be permitted as standby personnel if by abandoning their critical task(s) to assist, or if necessary, perform rescue, this clearly jeopardizes the safety and health of any firefighter working at the incident. 28 In order to meet CFR 1910.134(g)(4), and NFPA 1500, the NCFD must utilize two personnel to commit to interior fire attack while two firefighters remain out of the hazardous area or immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH) area to form the Initial Rapid Intervention Team (IRIT), while attack lines are charged, and a continuous water supply is established.

However, NFPA 1500 allows for fewer than four personnel under specific circumstances. It states :

Initial attack operations shall be organized to ensure that if on arrival at the emergency scene, initial attack personnel find an imminent life-threatening situation where immediate action could prevent the loss of life or serious injury, such action shall be permitted with fewer than four personnel.29
CFR 1910.134(g)(4) also states that nothing in section (g) is meant to preclude firefighters from performing emergency rescue activities before an entire team has assembled. 30 It is also important to note that the OSHA standard (and NFPA 1710) specifically references “interior firefighting.” Firefighting activities that are performed from the exterior of the building are not regulated by this portion of the OSHA standard. However, in the end, the ability to assemble adequate personnel, along with appropriate apparatus, on the scene of a structure fire, is critical to operational success and firefighter safety.

26. CFR 1910.134 (g) 4

27. NFPA 1500, 2021, 8.8.2.

28. NFPA 1500, 2021, 8.8.2.5.

29. NFPA 1500, 2021 8.8.2.10.

30. CFR 190.134, (g).

63 EFFECTIVE RESPONSE FORCE AND CRITICAL TASKING
Critical tasks are those activities that must be conducted on time and preferably simultaneously by responders at emergency incidents to control the situation and minimize/stop loss (property and life-safety). Critical tasking for fire operations is the minimum number of personnel needed to perform the tasks needed to effectively control and mitigate a fire or other emergency. To be effective, critical tasking must assign enough personnel so that all identified functions can be performed simultaneously. However, it is important to note that initial response personnel may manage secondary support functions once they have completed their primary assignment.

Thus, while an incident may end up requiring a greater commitment of resources or a specialized response, a properly executed critical tasking assignment will provide adequate resources to immediately begin bringing the incident under control.

The specific number of people required to perform all the critical tasks associated with an identified risk or incident type is referred to as an Effective Response Force (ERF). The goal is to deliver an ERF within a prescribed period. NFPA 1710 provides the benchmarks for effective response forces.

The next figure illustrates an ERF for a single family dwelling as outlined in NFPA 1710 ( which is 16 personnel, 17 if the aerial device is in operation).

FIGURE 4-1: Effective Response Force for Single-Family Dwelling Fire

NCFD Staffing Model
The NCFD has three operational shifts, A, B, and C. Each of the shifts is staffed with five firefighters, three engineers, four captains (company officer), and one Battalion Chief (shift commander), for an on-duty operational response force of 13 personnel.

64 The following table details the positions for each shift.

TABLE 4-1: NCFD Shift Matrix
A Shift (24-Hour Shift) B Shift (24-Hour Shift) C Shift (24-Hour Shift) E31
■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Engineer
■ 1 Firefighter
E31
■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Engineer
■ 1 Firefighter
E31
■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Engineer
■ 1 Firefighter
E34
■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Engineer
■ 1 Firefighter
E34
■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Engineer
■ 1 Firefighter
E34
■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Engineer
■ 1 Firefighter
L34
■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Engineer
■ 2 Firefighters
L34
■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Engineer
■ 2 Firefighters
L34
■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Engineer
■ 2 Firefighters
Squad 33
■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Firefighter
Squad 33
■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Firefighter
Squad 33
■ 1 Captain
■ 1 Firefighter
■ BC: 1 Battalion Chief ■ BC: 1 Battalion Chief ■ BC: 1 Battalion Chief

The following discussion and tables will outline how critical tasking and assembling an effective response force is first measured in NFPA 1710, and how the NCFD is benchmarked against this standard for the building types existing in National City. This discussion will cover single-family dwelling buildings, open-air strip mall buildings, and apartment buildings as outlined in the NFPA standard. As discussed above, for certain responses the NCFD relies on automatic aid to assemble an Effective Response Force. NCFD tables are built using the first alarm assignment in accordance with the San Diego Metro Zone Response Plan Matrix.

Single-Family Dwelling: NFPA 1710, 5.2.4.1
The initial full alarm assignment (ERF) to a structural fire in a typical 2,000 square -foot, two-story, single-family dwelling without a basement and with no exposures must provide for a minimum of 16 members (17 if an aerial device is used). The following table outlines the critical task matrix.

§ § §

65 TABLE 4-2: Effective Response Force for Single-Family Dwelling Fire Critical Tasks Personnel
Incident Command 1
Continuous Water Supply 1
Fire Attack via Two Handlines 4
Hydrant Hook Up – Forcible Entry – Utilities 2
Primary Search and Rescue 2
Ground Ladders and Ventilation 2
Aerial Operator if Aerial is Used 1
Establishment of IRIC (Initial Rapid Intervention Crew) 4 Total Effective Response Force 16
(17 If aerial is used)

The following table outlines how the NCFD assembles staffing and deployable resources as measured against NFPA 1710 benchmarking for an effective response force for a single -family dwelling fire. NCFD units are highlighted.

TABLE 4-3: NCFD Effective Response Force for Single-Family Dwelling Fire Apparatus Personnel
NCFD Battalion Chief 1
Auto Aid Battalion Chief 1
NCFD Engine 3
NCFD Engine 3
Auto Aid Engine 4
Auto Aid Engine 4
NCFD Ladder 4
1-ALS unit 2
Total NCFD ERF 22

As a single responding agency, NCFD does not meet the minimum benchmarks of NFPA 1710 for an Effective Response Force for single-family dwelling fires. With regional automatic aid, the NCFD does meet this benchmark. NFPA 1710 permits fire departments to use established automatic aid and mutual aid agreements to comply with section 5.2 of this standard. 31 Open-Air Strip Mall/Commercial, NFPA 5.2.4.2
The initial full alarm assignment (ERF) to a structural fire in a typical open -air strip center/commercial structure ranging from 13,000 square feet to 196,000 square feet in size must provide for a minimum of 27 members (28 if an aerial device is used). The foll owing table outlines the critical tasking matrix for this type of fire. This can also be typed as a commercial building fire response.

31. NFPA 1710. 5.2.1.3
San Diego Metro Zone Response Plan Matrix
Residential Structure Fire

66 TABLE 4-4: Effective Response Force for Open-Air Strip Mall/Commercial Fire Critical Tasks Personnel
Incident Command 2
Continuous Water Supply 2
Fire Attack via Two Handlines 6
Hydrant Hook Up – Forcible Entry - Utilities 3
Primary Search and Rescue 4
Ground Ladders and Ventilation 4
Aerial Operator if Aerial is Used 1
Establishment of IRIC (Initial Rapid Intervention Crew) 4 Medical Care Team 2
Total Effective Response Force 27
(28 If aerial is used)

The following table outlines how the NCFD assembles staffing and deployable resources as measured against NFPA 1710 benchmarking for an effective response force for a n open-air strip mall and commercial building fire. NCFD units are highlighted.

TABLE 4-5: NCFD Effective Response Force for Open-Air Strip Mall/Commercial Fire
Apparatus Personnel
NCFD Battalion Chief 1
Auto Aid Battalion Chief 1
NCFD Engine 3
NCFD Engine 3
Auto Aid Engine 4
Auto Aid Engine 4
NCFD Ladder 4
Auto Aid Ladder 4
1 ALS unit 2
Total NCFD ERF 26

As a single responding agency, NCFD does not meet the minimum benchmarks of NFPA 1710 for an Effective Response Force for an open-air strip mall fire. With regional automatic aid, the NCFD does not meet the benchmark (minus 2 FFs). NFPA 1710 permits fire departments to use established automatic aid and mutual aid agreements to comply with section 5.2 of this standard.32
Apartment Building, NFPA 5.2.4.3
The initial full alarm assignment (ERF) to a structural fire in a typical 1,200 square -foot apartment within a three-story, garden-style apartment building must provide for a minimum of 27 members (28 if an aerial device is used). The following table outlines the critical tasking matrix for this type

32. NFPA 1710. 5.2.1.3
San Diego Metro Zone Response Plan Matrix
Commercial Structure Fire

67 of building fire. The NCFD has no specific response matrix for apartment buildings, so we utilized the NFPA commercial fire ERF matrix has it has similar staffing.

TABLE 4-6: Effective Response Force for Apartment Building Fire Critical Tasks Personnel
Incident Command 2
Continuous Water Supply 2
Fire Attack via Two Handlines 6
Hydrant Hook Up – Forcible Entry – Utilities 3
Primary Search and Rescue 4
Ground Ladders and Ventilation 4
Aerial Operator if Aerial is Used 1
Establishment of IRIC (Initial Rapid Intervention Crew 4 Medical Care Team 2
Total Effective Response Force 27
(28 If aerial is used)

The following table outlines how the NCFD assembles staffing and deployable resources as measured against NFPA 1710 benchmarking for an effective response force for an apartment building or other multi-unit housing type building fire. NCFD units are highlighted.

TABLE 4-7: NCFD Effective Response Force for Apartment Building Fire Apparatus Personnel
NCFD Battalion Chief 1
Auto Aid Battalion Chief 1
NCFD Engine 3
NCFD Engine 3
Auto Aid Engine 4
Auto Aid Engine 4
NCFD Ladder 4
Auto Aid Ladder 4
1 ALS unit 2
Total NCFD ERF 23-26

As a single responding agency, NCFD does not meet the minimum benchmarks of NFPA 1710 for an Effective Response Force for an apartment building fire. With regional automatic aid, the NCFD does not meet the benchmark (minus 2 FFs). NFPA 1710 permits fire departments to use established automatic aid and mutual aid agreements to comply with sectio n 5.2 of this standard.33

33. NFPA 1710. 5.2.1.3
San Diego Metro Zone Response Plan Matrix
Apartment-Commercial Structure Fire

68 High-Rise, NFPA 1710 5.2.4.4
The initial full alarm assignment to a fire in a building where the highest floor is greater than 75 feet above the lowest level of fire department vehicle access must provide for a minimum of 42 members (43 if the building is equipped with a fire pump).

TABLE 4-8: Structure Fire – High Rise
Critical Tasks Personnel
Incident Command 2
Continuous Water Supply 1 FF for continuous water; if fire pump exists, 1 additional FF required.

Fire Attack via Two Handlines 4
One Handline above the Fire Floor 2
Establishment of IRIC (Initial Rapid Intervention Crew) 4 Primary Search and Rescue Teams 4
Entry Level Officer with Aide near entry point of Fire
Floor
2 Entry Level Officer with Aide near the entry point
above the Fire Floor
2 Two Evacuation Teams 4
Elevator Operations 1
Safety Officer 1
FF Two Floors below Fire to Coordinate Staging 1
Rehabilitation Management 2
Officer and FFs to Manage Vertical Ventilation 4
Lobby Operations 1
Transportation of Equipment below Fire Floor 2
Officer to Manage Base Operations 1
Two ALS Medical Care Teams 4
Total Effective Response Force 42
(43 If building is equipped with pump)

§ § §

69 TABLE 4-9: NCFD Effective Response Force for High-Rise Fire Apparatus Personnel
NCFD Battalion Chief 1
Auto Aid Battalion Chief 1
NCFD Engine 3
NCFD Engine 3
Auto Aid Engine 4
Auto Aid Engine 4
Auto Aid Engine 4
NCFD Ladder 4
Auto Aid Ladder 4
1 Rescue 4
1 ALS unit 2
Total NCFD ERF 34

As a single responding agency, NCFD does not meet the minimum benchmarks of NFPA 1710 for an Effective Response Force for a high-rise fire. With regional automatic aid, the NCFD does not meet this benchmark. NFPA 1710 permits fire departments to use established automatic aid and mutual aid agreements to comply with section 5.2 of this standard. 34 Recommendations:
■ CPSM recommends the NCFD, to the extent possible and if practical depending on available automatic and mutual aid resources, work with regional Fire Chiefs to increase response resources to commercial, apartment, and high-rise fire responses that align more closely with the NFPA 1710 standard. (Recommendation No. 7.)
■ CPSM further recommends due to the following factors: demand for service on the NCFD; population density that includes substantial current and projected vertical density structures , many involving assisted and/or senior living; building and other risks identified in this report such as the San Diego Port property; industrial and commercial properties that include heavy rail and tractor-trailer transportation; proposed industrial and commercial properties; the resiliency issues the department faces due to demand for service; and to increase NCFD resources regarding assembling an Effective Response Force, that the city develop a one- to three-year funding plan to increase staffing on Engine 31 to four per shift (three total personnel with estimated salary costs of $263,000) as this is a single station response unit in a high- demand fire management zone, and in the subsequent three- to five-year period develop a funding plan to increase staffing on Engine 34 to four per shift (three total personnel with estimated costs of $263,000 to $300,000, depending on implementation year). (Recommendation No. 8.)

34. NFPA 1710. 5.2.1.3
San Diego Metro Zone Response Plan Matrix
High Rise Structure Fire

70 NCFD RESPONSE TIMES
Response times are typically utilized as a primary measurement for evaluating fire and EMS services. Response times are used as a benchmark to determine how well a fire department is currently performing, to help identify response trends, and to predict future operational needs and station placement. Achieving the quickest and safest response times possible should be a fundamental goal of every fire department.

Fire incident response time criterion is linked to the concept of “flashover.” This is the state at which super-heated gasses from a fire are released rapidly, causing the fire to burn freely, and become so volatile that the fire reaches an explosive state (simultaneous ignition of all the combustible materials in a room). In this situation, usually after an extended period (often eight to twelve minutes after ignition but at times as quickly as five to seven minutes), and a combination of the right conditions (fuel and oxygen), the fire expands rapidly and is much more difficult to contain. When the fire does reach this extremely hazardous state, initial firefighting forces are often overwhelmed, larger and more destructive fire occurs, the fire escapes the room and possibly even the building of origin, and significantly more resources are required to affect fire control and extinguishment.

Flashover occurs more quickly and more frequently today and is caused at least in part by the introduction of significant quantities of plastic and foam-based products into homes and businesses (e.g., furnishings, mattresses, bedding, plumbing and electrical components, home and business electronics, decorative materials, insulation, and structural components). These materials ignite and burn quickly and produce extreme heat and toxic smoke.

The next figure illustrates the time progression of a fire from inception (event initiation) through flashover. The time-versus-products of combustion curve shows activation times and effectiveness of residential sprinklers (approximately one minute), commercial sprinklers (four minutes), flashover (eight to ten minutes), and firefighters applying first water to the fire after notification, dispatch, response, and set up (ten minutes).

§ § §

71 FIGURE 4-2: Fire Growth from Inception to Flashover35

EMS response times are measured differently than fire service response times. Where the fire service uses NFPA 1710 as a response time benchmarking document, the focus for EMS is and should be directed to the evidence-based research relationship between clinical outcomes and response times. Much of the current research suggests response times have reduced impact on clinical outcomes outside of a small segment of call types. These include cerebrovascular accidents (stroke); injury or illness compromising the respiratory system; injury or illness compromising the cardiovascular system to include S-T segment elevation emergencies, high- acuity medical and pediatric emergencies; cardiac and respiratory arrest; and certain high-risk obstetrical emergencies to name a few. Each requires rapid response times, rapid on -scene treatment and packaging for transport, and rapid transport to the hospital.

The next figure illustrates the chance of survival from the onset of cardiac arrest, largely due to ventricular fibrillation in terms of minutes without emergency defibrillation delivered by the public or emergency responders. The chance of survival has not changed over time since this graphic was first published by the American Heart Association in 2000.

§ § §

35. Source: https://www.slideserve.com/tavon/the-international-society-of-fire-service-instructors

72 FIGURE 4-3: Cardiac Arrest Survival Probability by Minute

A crucial factor in the whole response time question is what we term “detection time.” This is the time it takes to detect a fire or a medical situation and notify 911 to initiate the response. In many instances, particularly at night or when automatic detection systems (fire sprinklers and smoke detectors) are not present or inoperable, the fire detection process can be extended.

The same holds true for EMS incidents. Many medical emergencies are often thought to be something minor by the patient, treated with home remedies, and the true emergency goes undetected until signs and symptoms are more severe. When the fire-EMS department responds, they often find these patients in acute states. Fires that go undetected and are allowed to expand in size become more destructive, are difficult to extinguish, and require more resources for longer periods of time.

For the purpose of this analysis, response time is a product of three components: dispatch time, turnout time, and travel time.

For this study, and unless otherwise indicated, response times and travel times me asure the first arriving unit only. The primary focus of this section is the dispatch and response time of the first arriving units for calls responded to with lights and sirens.

Dispatch time is the difference between the time a call is received and the earliest time an agency is dispatched. Dispatch time includes call processing time, which is the time required to determine the nature of the emergency and the types of resources to dispatch. The NFPA 1710 standard for this component of response times is the event is processed and dispatched in:
■ ≤ 64 seconds 90 percent of the time.
■ ≤ 106 seconds 95 percent of the time.
■ Special call types
□ ≤ 90 seconds 90 percent of the time.
□ ≤ 120 seconds 99 percent of the time.

The next component of response time is turnout time, an aspect of response which is controlled by the responding fire department. NFPA 1710 states that turnout time shall be:
■ ≤ 80 seconds (1.33 minutes) for fire and special operations 90 percent of the time . ■ ≤ 60 seconds (1.0 minute) for EMS responses.

73 The last component of response time is travel time, an aspect of response time that is affected by factors such as station location, road conditions, weather, and traffic control systems. NFPA 1710 states that travel time for the first arriving fire suppression unit to a fire incident shall be:
■ ≤ 240 seconds for the first arriving engine company to a fire suppression incident 90 percent of the time.
■ ≤ 360 seconds for the second company 90 percent of the time. ■ ≤ 480 seconds to assemble the initial first alarm assignment on scene 90 percent of the time for low/medium hazards, and 610 seconds for high-rise fire incidents 90 percent of the time.

For EMS incidents the standard NFPA 1710 standard establishes a travel time of:
■ ≤ 240 seconds for the first arriving engine company with automatic external defibrillator (AED) or higher level capability.
■ ≤ 480 seconds or less travel time of an Advanced Life Support (ALS) unit at an EMS incident where the service is provided by the fire department provided a first responder with an AED or basic life support unit arrived in 240 seconds or less travel time.

The following figure provides an overview of the fire department incident cascade of events and further describes the total cascade of events and their relationship to the total response time of a fire incident.

FIGURE 4-4: Incident Cascade of Events

Travel time is key to understanding how fire and EMS station location influences a community’s aggregate response time performance. Travel time can be mapped when existing and proposed station locations are known. The location of responding units is one key factor in response time; reducing response times, which is typically a key performance measure in determining the efficiency of department operations, often depends on this factor. The goal of placement of a single fire station or creating a network of responding f ire stations in a single Fire Department-NFPA 1710
Incident Terminates
Alarm Handling Time-NFPA 1710
Incident Begins
State of
Normalcy
Event
Initiation
Discovery of
Event
Alarm
Transfer
Time
Alarm
Answering
Time
Alarm
Processing
Time
Turnout Time
Travel Time
Initiate On-
Scene
Action
Intervention
Time
Control and
Mitigate
Event
Recovery

State of
Normalcy
Total Response Time

74 community is to optimize coverage with short travel distances, when possible, while giving special attention to natural and manmade barriers, and response routes that can create response-time problems.36 This goal is generally budget-driven and based on demand intensity of fire and EMS incidents, travel times, and identified risks.

As already discussed, the NCFD responds fire suppression units (engines/ladder/squad) from three stations and receives automatic aid from surrounding jurisdictions. This section expands on the earlier discussion on travel times and depicts how travel times of 240, 360, and 480 seconds look when mapped from the current fire station locations. Illustrating response time is import ant when considering the location from which assets should be deployed. When historic demand is coupled with risk analysis, a more informed decision can be made.

The following figures use GIS mapping to illustrate travel time bleeds using the existing str eet network from the current NCFD stations. CPSM also mapped the travel time projections from primary auto aid stations that may respond into National City.

The GIS data for streets includes speed limits for each street segment and allows for “U -turns” for dead-end streets and intersections, as well as other travel obstacles.

It is important to understand that measuring and analyzing response times and response time coverage are measurements of performance. When we discussed community risk above, we identified that the NCFD like most other fire departments in the nation is an all-hazards response agency. While different regions of the country respond to different environmental risks, the remaining hazards that fire departments confront remain the same. Linking response data to community risks lays the foundation for future fire department planning in terms of fire station location, the need for additional fire stations, and staffing levels whether supplied by the fire department or a combination of a city’s fire department and automatic aid. Managing fire department response capabilities to the identified community’s risk focuses on three components which are:
■ Having a full understanding of the total risk in the community and how each risk impacts the fire department in terms of resiliency, what the consequences are to the community and fire department should a specific risk or combination of two or more occur and preparing for and understanding the probability that the risk may occur.
■ Linking risk to the deployment of resources to effectively manage every incident. This includes assembling an Effective Response Force for the response risk in measurable times benchmarked against NFPA standards, deploying the appropriate apparatus (engines, ladders, heavy rescues, ambulances), and having a trained response force trained to combat a specific risk.
■ Understanding that each element of response times plays a role in the management of community risk. Low response times of the initial arriving engine and low time to assemble an Effective Response Time on fire and other incidents is associated with positiv e outcomes.

36. NFPA 1710, Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Career Departments, 2020 Edition.

75 The following figure looks at the travel time projection at 240 seconds from NCFD stations and the primary auto aid stations that respond into National City. From the NCFD stations, all but the western edges of the city are covered as benchmarked against the NFPA standard. These areas are largely industrial. In the central and central east potions of the city there is good overlap by NCFD stations, which supports resiliency. Auto/mutual aid stations do not have an impact other than the northeast portion of the city.

FIGURE 4-5: 240-Second Travel Time Maps
NCFD 240-Second Travel Time Auto/Mutual Aid 240-Second Travel Time into National City

The next figure shows travel time projections at 360 seconds, which in the NFPA 1710 standard is the time benchmark for the second fire company to arrive on the scene in less than or equal to 360 seconds 90 percent of the time. This standard links to the two-in/two-out regulation from OSHA and NFPA 1500 standards, as well as the initial critical tasking and the early assembly of an Effective Response Force for the incident. This figure compares the 360-second response from the NCFD stations and as well from the primary auto aid stations that respond into National City.

From the NCFD stations, nearly 100 percent of the city is covered as benchmarked against the NFPA standard. Station 33 is included here as Squad 33 counts as a second arriving fire unit per the standard. Auto/mutual aid stations have a positive impact in meeting this benchmark in a substantial share of the north and south areas of the city.

76 FIGURE 4-6: 360-Second Travel Time Maps
NCFD 360-Second Travel Time Auto/Mutual Aid 360-Second Travel Time into National City

The next figure looks at the travel time bleeds of 480 seconds, which in the NFPA 1710 standard is the time benchmark for the assembly of the initial first alarm assignment on scene in 480 seconds or less 90 percent of the time for low/medium hazards. This standard links to the incident critical tasking and the assembly of an Effective Response Force for the incident. This figure shows the 480 seconds response bleed from the NCFD stations and the primary auto aid stations that respond into National City.

These maps show us that together, NCFD and auto/mutual aid stations cover the city nearly 100 percent, with small gaps in the northeast and northwest corners. As the city is covered at 480 seconds, at the 610 second mark for high-rise incidents, the city is covered as well under the response standard (number of companies) the regional response plan designates for National City.

§ § §

77 FIGURE 4-7: 480-Second Travel Time Maps
NCFD 480-Second Travel Time Auto/Mutual Aid 480-Second Travel Time into National City

The next two tables depict the NCFD’s turnout, travel, and total response times for 2019 and 2020 as an average and at the 90th percentile as benchmarked against the NFPA 1710 standard.

§ § §

78 TABLE 4-9: Average Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Call Type, 2019 and 2020 Call Type
2019 2020
Minutes Calls
Minutes
Calls Dispatch Turnout Travel Total Dispatch Turnout Travel Total False alarm 1.7 1.2 3.5 6.4 300 1.8 1.1 3.9 6.8 203
Good intent 2.3 1.1 5.3 8.7 51 2.0 1.1 4.4 7.6 75
Hazard 1.7 1.2 4.0 6.9 47 1.7 1.0 3.4 6.1 33
Outside fire 1.7 1.3 3.6 6.5 123 1.8 1.2 4.1 7.0 160
Public service 2.3 1.1 4.1 7.5 112 2.0 1.1 4.3 7.3 126
Structure fire 2.2 1.0 2.6 5.8 30 1.7 0.9 3.3 5.8 29
Fire Total 1.9 1.2 3.7 6.8 663 1.8 1.1 4.0 7.0 626
EMS Total 2.0 1.0 3.3 6.4 4,991 2.1 1.1 3.7 6.8 4,738
Total 2.0 1.1 3.4 6.5 5,654 2.1 1.1 3.7 6.9 5,364

TABLE 4-10: 90th Percentile Response Time of First Arriving Unit, by Call Type, 2019 and 2020 Call Type
2019 2020
Dispatch Turnout Travel Total Calls Dispatch Turnout Travel Total Calls False alarm 2.7 2.1 5.5 8.7 300 2.9 2.0 6.1 9.4 203
Good intent 4.7 1.7 10.6 13.8 51 3.6 2.0 6.4 11.0 75
Hazard 2.7 2.0 5.8 10.8 47 3.0 1.5 5.0 8.4 33
Outside fire 2.5 2.0 5.6 9.3 123 3.0 2.1 6.2 9.4 160
Public service 3.5 2.0 6.6 10.8 112 3.9 2.0 7.3 10.8 126 Structure fire 3.3 1.7 4.4 7.7 30 2.4 1.8 5.1 8.2 29
Fire Total 3.2 2.0 6.1 9.7 663 3.1 2.0 6.2 9.4 626
EMS Total 3.5 1.8 5.2 8.6 4,991 3.6 2.0 5.5 9.3 4,738
Total 3.5 1.8 5.3 8.7 5,654 3.5 2.0 5.6 9.3 5,364

79 The call demands the NCFD experiences have an effect on response travel times when compared to each station’s ability to cover its fire management zone in 240 seconds as illustrated in Figure 4-5 above. Companies are at times out of position for the next call and often cross districts for first due responses. This is noted when reviewing the 90th percentile travel times in the table above and discussed in the resiliency section above. Turnout times at the 90th percentile should be reviewed by NCFD leadership to determine if there are any physical issues contributing to the overage in this response time element. This is an element the fire department has the greatest control over.

§§§

80 SECTION 5. EMS ANALYSIS

NATIONAL CITY EMS PROVIDER BACKGROUND
Emergency medical services (EMS) in National City are provided through a partnership between the National City Fire Department (NCFD) and a contracted ambulance provider, American Medical Response (AMR).

The NCFD provides Advanced Life Support (ALS) medical first response for high -acuity medical responses (Priority 1 and Priority 2), as presumptively determined through an Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) call-taking process through San Diego Metro Dispatch. NCFD does not typically respond to low-acuity medical calls (Priority 3 and Priority 4); those responses are managed by an AMR ambulance response only.

Evidence of the effectiveness of this response configuration is demonstrated in the response volume differences between NCFD and AMR.

In 2019, NCFD responded to 5,140 EMS calls (58 percent of all NCFD calls), an average of 14.1 calls per day. Comparatively, AMR responded to 7,328 EMS response in National City, an average of 20.1 calls per day.

This response configuration is an optimal use of ALS first response resources by not committing these resources to low-acuity calls in which an ALS first response would likely not be necessary to affect the patient’s outcome. Rather, ALS first response is preserved for the responses in which the arrival of additional ALS resources may have an impact on patient outcomes.

NATIONAL CITY EMS WORKLOAD
The workload of NCFD’s units is measured in two ways: runs and deployed time. The deployed time of a run is measured from the time a unit is dispatched through the time the unit is cleared.

Because multiple units respond to some calls, there are more runs (10,239) than calls (8,846) and the average deployed time per run varies from the average duration per call.

Deployed time, also referred to as deployed hours, is the total deployment time of NCFD units deployed on all runs. The CPSM data analysis shows that the total deployed time for NCFD’s 5,596 EMS responses was 1,824.5 hours, an average of 0.326 hours per EMS response, or an average of 19.6 minutes per response.

Another method for measuring workload is Unit Hour Utilization (UHU). UHU is a measure of activity, essentially measuring the amount of on-duty time that an EMS response unit is dispatched on a call.

A Unit Hour is defined as one unit, fully staffed, equipped and available for a response. For example, one unit on-duty, 24 hours per pay, 365 days per year equates to 8,760 unit hours (1 x 24 x 365). A UHU is derived by dividing the number of responses by the total number of unit hours.

NCFD staffs three primary EMS response units from three response stations, NCE31, NCSQ33, and NCE34. These three response units responded to 81.6 percent of EMS requests in National City in 2019, with the remaining EMS requests being handled by secondary EMS response units of NCE231, B57, and NCT34.

81 Using the Unit Hours of NCFD’s three primary EMS response units, we derive a Unit Hour staffing of 26,280 hours (3 x 8,760). Dividing the number of responses into the number of Unit Hours, we derive a response UHU of 0.213. This essentially means that an NCFD unit is on an EMS response

21.3 percent of the time they are on-duty.

A limitation of the UHU calculation is that it generally presumes that an EMS response will last on e hour. However, as referenced earlier, an NCFD unit is typically committed on an EMS call for only an average of 19.6 minutes. Therefore, we can also use a time analysis to more clearly indicate the percentage of time that NCFD units are committed on EMS responses.

As referenced, the CPSM data analysis reveals that in 2019, the total time that NCFD units were committed on EMS calls was 1,824.5 hours. Using the 26,280 annual staffed Unit Hours for the three primary EMS response units, we can calculate the percentage of time that NCFD’s primary EMS response units were committed on EMS responses as 0.069, or 6.9 percent of their on-duty time. In other words. NCFD’s primary EMS first response units maintain an available percentage of 93.1 percent.

EMS response volume is generally not evenly distributed by time of day. Typically, EMS volume peaks during times when people are engaging in activity as opposed to when they are sleeping. Figure 7-6 in the data analysis displays NCFD’s average deployed minutes by time of day. Average deployed time peaked between noon and 1:00 p.m., averaging 28.4 minutes .

During this time, NCFD typically has three primary EMS first response units on duty (3 unit hours), meaning that even at peak times, only 15.8 percent of on duty time is committed on responses (28.4 minutes ÷ 90 minutes (3 Unit Hours)).

From an EMS response perspective, this represents a very high degree of response capability, because of a very desirable system design in which first response units maintain a high level of availability, while ambulance resources may be committed on much longer task times due to ambulance transport and hospital destination times.

EMS Reliability
A detailed response time analysis for NCFD was completed by CPSM. To review, we separate response time into its identifiable components.

To derive the total response times for NCFD, and as discussed in an earlier section, we analyze three specific time segments:
■ Dispatch time is the difference between the time a call is received and the earliest time an agency is dispatched. Dispatch time includes call processing time, which is the time required to determine the nature of the emergency and the types of resources to dispatch. ■ Turnout time is the difference between the earliest dispatch time and the earliest time an agency’s unit is en route to a call’s location.
■ Travel time is the difference between the earliest en route time and the earliest arrival time.

Response time is the total time elapsed between receiving a call to arriving on scene.

CPSM uses two response time measures to evaluate EMS response times, average and fractile.

The average time represents the response time internal at which half of the responses are LESS than that interval, and half are LONGER than that interval. It is a level of performance, but not necessarily a level of reliability.

The 90th percentile measure is a measure of reliability. A 90th percentile analysis determines the response interval in which 90 percent of the EMS response times fall under that inte rval. In other

82 words, the response time interval in which only 10 percent of the EMS response time was longer than that 90th percent interval.

For NCFD’s EMS responses, the average and 90th percentile times for each segment are described in the following tables for 2019.

TABLE 5-1: NCFD Average EMS Response Times
EMS Response Segment Dispatch Turnout Travel Total
Average, Minutes 2.0 1.0 3.3 6.4

TABLE 5-2: NCFD 90th Percentile EMS Response Times
EMS Response Segment Dispatch Turnout Travel Total
90th Percentile, Minutes 3.5 1.8 5.2 8.6

The following tables depict the average dispatch, turnout, travel, and total response times for all calls to which AMR responded within the National City fire district in 2019.

TABLE 5-3: AMR Average EMS Response Times
AMR Response Segment Dispatch Turnout Travel Total
Average, Minutes 0.9 0.8 6.4 8.0

TABLE 5-4: AMR 90th Percentile EMS Response Times
AMR Response Segment Dispatch Turnout Travel Total
90th Percentile, Minutes 2.4 1.8 10.9 13.2

Both the average and fractile response times for AMR are consistent with national standards, and compliant with contractual requirements.

Because of the dual-tier EMS response configuration for Priority 1 and Priority 2 EMS responses, that is, those in which both a NCFD and AMR unit respond, on average an NCFD unit will arrive on scene in 6.4 minutes with an AMR ambulance arriving in 8.0 minutes, or a 1.6-minute time difference. At the 90th percentile level, the time difference is 4.6 minutes.

CPSM was provided 37 monthly AMR response time compliance reports from January 2018 through December 2020. An analysis of these reports revealed that nearly every monthly report showed that AMR was response time compliant with the requirements in their service agreement with National City; in some months AMR achieved a 99 percent compliance rate.

This data analysis depicts a highly functional and reliable EMS response system.

§ § §

83 CONSIDERATION FOR NCFD GROUND AMBULANCE OPERATIONS
As part of our analysis, CPSM has been asked to evaluate the feasibility for NCFD to engage in ground ambulance transport services.

CPSM has been engaged in a multi-year study in San Diego County, which includes a detailed financial analysis for ambulance operations in two County Service Areas (CSAs) within the county. This project has provided us a unique insight into revenues generated from ambula nce operations.

For this part of the report, we will begin with potential revenue generation from ground ambulance services provided by NCFD.

Payer Mix
Payer mix refers to the sources of revenue from ground ambulance services. The payer mix impacts the ability for revenue generation since payer sources reimburse ambulance services in vastly different ways. For example, collection percentages from self-pay patients are generally only 2 to 3 percent, while collection rates from commercial insurers is generally much higher.

Medicare and Medi-Cal generally pay fixed amounts, but generally less than the cost of providing the service.

Based on our experience with other San Diego County CSAs, National City would likely experience a payer mix shown in the 2022 column of the following table.

TABLE 5-5: National City Projected EMS Payer Mix
Payer 2019 2020 2021 National
City
Medicare 14.7% 16.7% 16.5% 15.2%
Medicare MCO 26.9% 30.7% 28.8% 25.5%
Medi-Cal 2.7% 4.3% 4.0% 3.7%
Medi-Cal MCO 17.0% 22.0% 22.6% 22.6%
Dual Eligible N/A 2.1% 2.2% 2.2%
Commercial 12.0% 16.1% 17.7% 15.3%
Self-Pay 10.9% 6.3% 6.0% 14.1%
Other 15.7% 1.8% 2.1% 1.5%
Total 99.9% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Recent trends in employment have led to a shift from commercially insured patients to self-pay, due to people leaving employment with health insurance benefits to start business on their own, or even becoming unemployed. Since reimbursement from self-pay patients tends to be significantly less than commercially insured patients, EMS systems across the country have experienced a reduction in revenue for services provided.

Potential National City Ground Transport Revenues
Revenue from ambulance service is generally based on four factors; transport volume, service mix (ALS/BLS, emergency/non-emergency), ambulance rate schedule, and payer mix (which impacts collection amounts).

84 For our analysis, we used the prevailing ambulance rate schedule that is consistent with surrounding communities in San Diego County.

TABLE 5-6: Projected Transport Fee Schedule
Ambulance Fee Schedule HCPCS
Code Fee
ALS Base Emergency A0427 $2,356.37
ALS Level 2 Emergency A0433 $2,626.09
Mileage Urban A0425 $45.27
Oxygen A0422 $148.52
BLS Base Emergency A0429 $1,173.37
BLS Base (Non-Emergency) A0428 $1,058.73
Treat No Transport A0998 $175.75

Using this fee schedule, we estimate that the Average Patient Charge (APC) for a n NCFD-based ambulance service would be $2,816.88, with a net (collected) reimbursement of $567.60 (a 20.15 percent gross collection rate).

Using these predictions, we can estimate the revenue generated by an ambulance service run by NCFD over the next three years as follows:

TABLE 5-7: NCFD 3-Year Estimated EMS Transport Revenues Year 1
Average
Patient Charge Gross Fees
Collection
%
Average
Collected
Net
Collections
Responses 7,137

Transports 4,782 $2,816.88 $13,469,729 20.2% $567.60 $2,714,150 Non-Transports 2,355 $175.75 $413,928 5.0% $8.79 $20,696 Total

$13,883,657

$2,734,847
Year 2
Average
Patient Charge Gross Fees Collection %
Average
Collected
Net
Collections
Responses 7,351

Transports 4,925 $2,901.39 $14,290,035 20.1% $583.18 $2,872,297 Non-Transports 2,426 $181.02 $439,136 5.0% $9.05 $21,957 Total

$14,729,171

$2,894,254
Year 3
Average
Patient Charge Gross Fees Collection %
Average
Collected
Net
Collections
Responses 7,572

Transports 5,073 $2,988.43 $15,160,298 19.7% $588.72 $2,986,579 Non-Transports 2,499 $186.45 $465,880 5.0% $9.32 $23,294 Total

$15,626,178

$3,009,873

Ambulance service billing is complex, and it is recommended that NCFD use the services of an outside ambulance billing agency for ambulance billing. Generally, contracted billing services charge fees based on the actual revenue collected. These fees are typically 4.5 percent of net collections. Billing expenses are included later in this analysis.

85 Potential National City Ground Transport Expenses
To provide services comparable to what is currently provided by AMR, NCFD would need to staff three ambulances, 24/7. Based on response volume and overall task times, this would yield a Unit Hour Utilization of 0.300.

TABLE 5-8: NCFD 24/7 Ambulance Needs
Responses Transports Non-
Transports
Transport
Ratio
Transport
Task
Time
Non-
Transport
Task
Time
Average
Task
Time
Total
Time
on
Task
Unit Hour
Utilization
Unit
Hours
Needed
Ambulances
Needed
2022 7,137 4,782 2,355 0.670 1.5 0.617 1.21 7,553 0.300 25,178 2.9 2023 7,351 4,925 2,426 0.670 1.5 0.617 1.21 7,780 0.300 25,933 3.0 2024 7,572 5,073 2,499 0.670 1.5 0.617 1.21 8,013 0.300 26,711 3.0

For the projected expenses for running an NCFD-based ambulance system, we presume NCFD would use sworn personnel to staff the ambulances, giving the system additional flexibilities for cross-staffing and cross-functioning personnel that could be deployed for a fire or medical response. We also presume an EMT/Paramedic staffing configuration, since currently, a second paramedic, if needed for ALS patient care, would be typically provided by an engine co-responding on the medical call.

NCFD could use non-sworn, dual-role personnel for ambulance service provision. This would reduce some of the personnel expenses; however, it would also limit the ability of personnel assigned to ambulance duties to fulfill other duties that may be valuab le for the city.

For this analysis, we used the pay rates, salary schedule, and shift patterns as outlined in the July 2020 – December 2021 Memorandum of Understanding between National City and the Fire Fighters Association.

Based on these presumptions, and using the current and future pay rates for each position, including the wage differences based on hours worked per week, the staffing configuration and costs for three years is shown in the tables that follow.

86 TABLE 5-9: NCFD EMS Staffing Cost: Year 1
Ambulance Personnel Rate # Reg.

Hours
Regular
Wages
Overtime
Rate
FLSA
Pay (1)
Training
Hours (2)
Overtime
Wages
Total
Wages
Benefit
% Total Expense
A-Shift Ambulance 1 EMT (240 Shift) $21.63 1.00 2756 $59,611 $32.44 156 10 $5,386 $64,997 45.0% $94,246 B-Shift Ambulance 1 EMT (240 Shift) $21.63 1.00 2756 $59,611 $32.44 156 10 $5,386 $64,997 45.0% $94,246 C-Shift Ambulance 1 EMT (240 Shift) $21.63 1.00 2756 $59,611 $32.44 156 10 $5,386 $64,997 45.0% $94,246 A-Shift Ambulance 2 EMT (240 Shift) $21.63 1.00 2756 $59,611 $32.44 156 10 $5,386 $64,997 45.0% $94,246 B-Shift Ambulance 2 EMT (240 Shift) $21.63 1.00 2756 $59,611 $32.44 156 10 $5,386 $64,997 45.0% $94,246 C-Shift Ambulance 2 EMT (240 Shift) $21.63 1.00 2756 $59,611 $32.44 156 10 $5,386 $64,997 45.0% $94,246 A-Shift Ambulance 3 EMT (240 Shift) $21.63 1.00 2756 $59,611 $32.44 156 10 $5,386 $64,997 45.0% $94,246 B-Shift Ambulance 3 EMT (240 Shift) $21.63 1.00 2756 $59,611 $32.44 156 10 $5,386 $64,997 45.0% $94,246 C-Shift Ambulance 3 EMT (240 Shift) $21.63 1.00 2756 $59,611 $32.44 156 10 $5,386 $64,997 45.0% $94,246 A-Shift Ambulance 1 Paramedic (240 Shift) $24.51 1.00 2756 $67,540 $36.76 156 20 $6,470 $74,010 45.0% $107,314 B-Shift Ambulance 1 Paramedic (240 Shift) $24.51 1.00 2756 $67,540 $36.76 156 20 $6,470 $74,010 45.0% $107,314 C-Shift Ambulance 1 Paramedic (240 Shift) $24.51 1.00 2756 $67,540 $36.76 156 20 $6,470 $74,010 45.0% $107,314 A-Shift Ambulance 2 Paramedic (240 Shift) $24.51 1.00 2756 $67,540 $36.76 156 20 $6,470 $74,010 45.0% $107,314 B-Shift Ambulance 2 Paramedic (240 Shift) $24.51 1.00 2756 $67,540 $36.76 156 20 $6,470 $74,010 45.0% $107,314 C-Shift Ambulance 2 Paramedic (240 Shift) $24.51 1.00 2756 $67,540 $36.76 156 20 $6,470 $74,010 45.0% $107,314 A-Shift Ambulance 3 Paramedic (240 Shift) $24.51 1.00 2756 $67,540 $36.76 156 20 $6,470 $74,010 45.0% $107,314 B-Shift Ambulance 3 Paramedic (240 Shift) $24.51 1.00 2756 $67,540 $36.76 156 20 $6,470 $74,010 45.0% $107,314 C-Shift Ambulance 3 Paramedic (240 Shift) $24.51 1.00 2756 $67,540 $36.76 156 20 $6,470 $74,010 45.0% $107,314 Floater Paramedic (240 Shift) $24.51 1.00 2756 $67,540 $36.76 156 20 $6,470 $74,010 45.0% $107,314 Ambulance Supv./Coordinator/Captain $40.35 1.00 2080 $83,935 $60.53 104 20 $7,506 $91,441 45.0% $132,589 Year 1 Total Personnel Expense

$ 2,053,941

87 TABLE 5-10: NCFD EMS Staffing Cost: Year 2
Ambulance Personnel
Rate # Reg.

Hours
Regular
Wages
Overtime
Rate
FLSA Pay
(1)
Training
Hours (2)
Overtime
Wages
Total
Wages
Benefit
% Total Expense
A-Shift Ambulance 1 EMT (240 Shift) $22.71 1.00 2756 $62,576 $34.06 156 10 $5,654 $68,230 45.0% $98,934 B-Shift Ambulance 1 EMT (240 Shift) $22.71 1.00 2756 $62,576 $34.06 156 10 $5,654 $68,230 45.0% $98,934 C-Shift Ambulance 1 EMT (240 Shift) $22.71 1.00 2756 $62,576 $34.06 156 10 $5,654 $68,230 45.0% $98,934 A-Shift Ambulance 2 EMT (240 Shift) $22.71 1.00 2756 $62,576 $34.06 156 10 $5,654 $68,230 45.0% $98,934 B-Shift Ambulance 2 EMT (240 Shift) $22.71 1.00 2756 $62,576 $34.06 156 10 $5,654 $68,230 45.0% $98,934 C-Shift Ambulance 2 EMT (240 Shift) $22.71 1.00 2756 $62,576 $34.06 156 10 $5,654 $68,230 45.0% $98,934 A-Shift Ambulance 3 EMT (240 Shift) $22.71 1.00 2756 $62,576 $34.06 156 10 $5,654 $68,230 45.0% $98,934 B-Shift Ambulance 3 EMT (240 Shift) $22.71 1.00 2756 $62,576 $34.06 156 10 $5,654 $68,230 45.0% $98,934 C-Shift Ambulance 3 EMT (240 Shift) $22.71 2.00 2756 $62,576 $34.06 156 10 $5,654 $68,230 45.0% $98,934 A-Shift Ambulance 1 Paramedic (240 Shift) $25.73 1.00 2756 $70,899 $38.59 156 20 $6,792 $77,691 45.0% $112,652 B-Shift Ambulance 1 Paramedic (240 Shift) $25.73 1.00 2756 $70,899 $38.59 156 20 $6,792 $77,691 45.0% $112,652 C-Shift Ambulance 1 Paramedic (240 Shift) $25.73 1.00 2756 $70,899 $38.59 156 20 $6,792 $77,691 45.0% $112,652 A-Shift Ambulance 2 Paramedic (240 Shift) $25.73 1.00 2756 $70,899 $38.59 156 20 $6,792 $77,691 45.0% $112,652 B-Shift Ambulance 2 Paramedic (240 Shift) $25.73 1.00 2756 $70,899 $38.59 156 20 $6,792 $77,691 45.0% $112,652 C-Shift Ambulance 2 Paramedic (240 Shift) $25.73 1.00 2756 $70,899 $38.59 156 20 $6,792 $77,691 45.0% $112,652 A-Shift Ambulance 3 Paramedic (240 Shift) $25.73 1.00 2756 $70,899 $38.59 156 20 $6,792 $77,691 45.0% $112,652 B-Shift Ambulance 3 Paramedic (240 Shift) $25.73 1.00 2756 $70,899 $38.59 156 20 $6,792 $77,691 45.0% $112,652 C-Shift Ambulance 3 Paramedic (240 Shift) $25.73 1.00 2756 $70,899 $38.59 156 20 $6,792 $77,691 45.0% $112,652 Floater Paramedic (240 Shift) $25.73 1.00 2756 $70,899 $38.59 156 20 $6,792 $77,691 45.0% $112,652 Ambulance Supv./Coordinator/Captain $42.39 1.00 2080 $88,169 $63.58 104 20 $7,884 $96,053 45.0% $139,278 Year 2 Total Personnel Expense $ 2,156,201

88 TABLE 5-11: NCFD EMS Staffing Cost: Year 3
Ambulance Personnel Rate # Reg.

Hours
Regular
Wages
Overtime
Rate
FLSA Pay
(1)
Training
Hours (2)
Overtime
Wages
Total
Wages
Benefit
% Total Expense
A-Shift Ambulance 1 EMT (240 Shift) $23.84 1.00 2756 $65,710 $35.76 156 10 $5,937 $71,646 45.0% $103,887 B-Shift Ambulance 1 EMT (240 Shift) $23.84 1.00 2756 $65,710 $35.76 156 10 $5,937 $71,646 45.0% $103,887 C-Shift Ambulance 1 EMT (240 Shift) $23.84 1.00 2756 $65,710 $35.76 156 10 $5,937 $71,646 45.0% $103,887 A-Shift Ambulance 2 EMT (240 Shift) $23.84 1.00 2756 $65,710 $35.76 156 10 $5,937 $71,646 45.0% $103,887 B-Shift Ambulance 2 EMT (240 Shift) $23.84 1.00 2756 $65,710 $35.76 156 10 $5,937 $71,646 45.0% $103,887 C-Shift Ambulance 2 EMT (240 Shift) $23.84 1.00 2756 $65,710 $35.76 156 10 $5,937 $71,646 45.0% $103,887 A-Shift Ambulance 3 EMT (240 Shift) $23.84 1.00 2756 $65,710 $35.76 156 10 $5,937 $71,646 45.0% $103,887 B-Shift Ambulance 3 EMT (240 Shift) $23.84 1.00 2756 $65,710 $35.76 156 10 $5,937 $71,646 45.0% $103,887 C-Shift Ambulance 3 EMT (240 Shift) $23.84 1.00 2756 $65,710 $35.76 156 11 $5,973 $71,682 45.0% $103,939 A-Shift Ambulance 1 Paramedic (240 Shift) $27.01 1.00 2756 $74,449 $40.52 156 20 $7,132 $81,581 45.0% $118,292 B-Shift Ambulance 1 Paramedic (240 Shift) $27.01 1.00 2756 $74,449 $40.52 156 20 $7,132 $81,581 45.0% $118,292 C-Shift Ambulance 1 Paramedic (240 Shift) $27.01 1.00 2756 $74,449 $40.52 156 20 $7,132 $81,581 45.0% $118,292 A-Shift Ambulance 2 Paramedic (240 Shift) $27.01 1.00 2756 $74,449 $40.52 156 20 $7,132 $81,581 45.0% $118,292 B-Shift Ambulance 2 Paramedic (240 Shift) $27.01 1.00 2756 $74,449 $40.52 156 20 $7,132 $81,581 45.0% $118,292 C-Shift Ambulance 2 Paramedic (240 Shift) $27.01 1.00 2756 $74,449 $40.52 156 20 $7,132 $81,581 45.0% $118,292 A-Shift Ambulance 3 Paramedic (240 Shift) $27.01 1.00 2756 $74,449 $40.52 156 20 $7,132 $81,581 45.0% $118,292 B-Shift Ambulance 3 Paramedic (240 Shift) $27.01 1.00 2756 $74,449 $40.52 156 20 $7,132 $81,581 45.0% $118,292 C-Shift Ambulance 3 Paramedic (240 Shift) $27.01 1.00 2756 $74,449 $40.52 156 21 $7,172 $81,621 45.0% $118,351 Floater Paramedic (240 Shift) $27.01 1.00 2756 $74,449 $40.52 156 22 $7,213 $81,662 45.0% $118,410 Ambulance Supv./Coordinator/Captain $44.49 1.00 2080 $92,546 $66.74 104 21 $8,343 $100,889 45.0% $146,289 Year 3 Total Personnel Expense $2,264,422

89 Capital Costs
In addition to the personnel costs, NCFD would need to make capital purchases for the provision of ambulance services. For the purposes of this analysis, we will use annual depreciation estimates based on the predicted useful life of the capital equipment, but it should be noted that the initial costs are listed in the Capital Outlay column of the following table.

TABLE 5-12: NCFD EMS Capital Outlay and Capital Annualized Costs

Capital
Expense
Number
Needed
Capital
Outlay
Useful Life
(Years)
Annual
Expense
Ambulance $350,000 4 $1,400,000 5 $280,000
Cardiac Monitor $45,000 5 $225,000 7 $32,143
Auto-Load/Stretcher $35,000 5 $175,000 7 $25,000
Radios $3,500 12 $42,000 4 $10,500
Mobile Computers $1,750 5 $8,750 2 $4,375
Total - - $1,850,750 - $352,018

Annual Operating Expenses
In addition to personnel and capital expenses, NCFD will have other expenses related to providing ambulance services. These include vehicle expenses such as fuel, maintenance, and tires, but also include additional medical supplies for the additional service level of ambulance provision. These are summarized below for Year 1 and escalated by a factor of 7 percent for subsequent years in our analysis.

TABLE 5-13: NCFD EMS Annualized Operating Costs
Annual Responses 7,137

Annual Transports 4,782

Category Annual
Miles
Miles Per
Gallon Gallons Price Total
Fuel 49,959 5 9,992 $5.20 $51,957
Annual
Miles
Cost per
Mile
Total
Maintenance/Tires 49,959 $0.41 $20,483
Per
Response Responses Total
Medical Supplies $21.00 7,137 $149,877
Equipment Maintenance $3.50 7,137 $24,980
Total Operations Expense $247,297

90 Financial Rollup – NCFD Operated Ambulance Service
Combining the potential revenue and expenses for a NCFD operated ambulance service, the net operating margin for services is summarized in the following table.

TABLE 5-14: NCFD EMS Net Operating Margin
Expense Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Personnel $1,949,373 $2,046,431 $2,149,157
Vehicles/Equipment $352,018 $369,619 $388,100
Operations $247,297 $264,608 $283,130
Billing Fees $130,241 $135,444 $135,444
Total $2,678,929 $2,816,102 $2,955,831
Revenue $2,734,847 $2,894,254 $3,009,873
Net From Operations $63,091 $83,355 $54,042

Note that operationally, there is slight retained earnings each year, however, this amount decreases over time, as personnel and operational expenses increase at a faster rate than revenues.

However, AMR currently pays fees to the city for ambulance operations in the city. These fees consist of a $320,000 annual franchise fee, and $80,000 annually for renting space in fire station to house ambulances. It is likely that if NCFD assumed ambulance service provision, the fees would no longer be paid to the City. Adding the loss of $400,000 annually, the total financial impact to the city can be illustrated below.

TABLE 5-15: NCFD EMS Financial Impact
Expense Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Personnel $1,949,373 $2,046,431 $2,149,157
Vehicles/Equipment $352,018 $369,619 $388,100
Operations $247,297 $264,608 $283,130
Billing Fees $123,068 $130,241 $135,444
Total $2,671,756 $2,810,899 $2,955,831
Revenue $2,734,847 $2,894,254 $3,009,873
Net From Operations $63,091 $83,355 $54,042
Loss of AMR Fees $ (400,000) $ (400,000) $ (400,000) Net to the City $ (336,909) $ (316,645) $ (345,958)

Overall, there will be significant net financial losses to the city if NCFD assumes responsibility for providing ambulance service.

Based on the fact that AMR is providing services that are consistent with the contractual requirements, and the contract is contributing a net financial benefit to the city, it is our recommendation that the current method of ambulance service provision of usin g an outside contractor be retained, and that NCFD not assume responsibility for providing ambulance services to the city.

91 Recommendation:
■ The current method of ambulance service provision of using an outside contractor should be retained, and the NCFD should not assume responsibility for providing ambulance services to the city. (Recommendation No. 9.)

AMR AMBULANCE SERVICE CONTRACT
AMR is currently operating under a contract with National City that was initially established in 2006. There have been significant changes in National City, as well as with ambulance service delivery over the past 15 years. Additionally, ambulance service providers within the southern San Diego region have changed and there may be other options for contracted ambulance service providers for National City.

Therefore, the city should negotiate with AMR for significant contracting updates or consider options for procuring enhanced service delivery models, either from the current or prospective ambulance service providers.

Recommendation:
■ The city should negotiate with AMR for significant contracting updates or consider undergoing an RFP process to seek enhanced service delivery models, either from the current, or prospective ambulance service providers. (Recommendation No. 10.)

MOBILE INTEGRATED HEALTHCARE/COMMUNITY PARAMEDICINE
One of the fastest growing value-added service enhancements in EMS is the development of Mobile Integrated Healthcare / Community Paramedicine (MIH/CP) programs. MIH/CP is comprised of a suite of potential services that EMS could provide to fill gaps in the local healthcare delivery system. In essence, MIH/CP is intended to better manage the i ncreasing EMS call volume and better align the types of care being provided with the needs of the patient. To be effective, MIH/CP is commonly accomplished in a collaborative approach with healthcare and social service agencies within the community.

We believe that there are opportunities for NCFD to use existing service capacity to collaborate with local stakeholders to implement an MIH/CP program to help manage the navigation of patients to treatment options more efficiently.

Recommendation:
■ NCFD should engage in discussions with local and regional stakeholders to determine the potential benefits and impact of initiating a Mobile Integrated Healthcare / Community Paramedicine program. (Recommendation No. 11.)

§ § §

92 SECTION 6. FIRE EMERGENCY

COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM
CPSM was asked to review the current fire dispatching system and costs and provide a recommendation on brining this function in-house. The police department currently provides law enforcement dispatch services to the National City Police Department.

The NCFD currently has an agreement with San Diego City for the receiving of fire and medical related emergency calls as a secondary Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), processing the call, and then dispatching the appropriate response assets as defined in the San Diego metro call algorithms. Key components of this the agreement include:
■ Triaging medical calls to ensure the most appropriate resource is dispatched. ■ Dispatching the closest available unit via Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL). ■ Fire Station Alerting via CAD to station interface utilizing agency self-managed alerting system. ■ Mobile Data Computer (MDC) or other mobile platform services such as mapping, live-routing, and loading agency self-managed building pre-plans.
■ Records Management System (RMS) services for a CAD-to-Fire RMS interface.

Compensation to San Diego City for the dispatch service is subject to change each fiscal year of the contract and has a base “cost per call” dispatch fee for service. Dispatch fees are based on the adopted 911-Center budget for personnel services and prior year actuals for non - personnel expenditures (agency per-call volume).

National City currently has a five-year agreement with San Diego City for 911 Fire and EMS Dispatch services that became effective July 1, 2019. The agreement has a five-year extension clause. Year-to-year cost increases are based on any increase in call volume, with a five percent increase (plus or minus) service as the base fee escalator. Should NCFD’s call volume increase more than five percent, an increase in non-personnel expenditures will increase equal to the percent increase in call volume rounded to the nearest tenth. A five percent escalator applies if the call volume does not increase to a sum equaling five percent. The base agreement cost in 2019 was $361,050. The current fire dispatch agreement cost is $442,000.

CPSM visited the National City Police 911 Center and spoke with the Support Services Manager (SSM) who manages the center. In our conversation with the SSM, CPSM was informed that to bring fire dispatching into the National City 911 Center, the following would have to be added:
■ Two 911 Center workstations.
□ Workstation with chair, radio, computer, computer monitors, and ancillary console equipment and interfaces, with a cost of $25,000 to $30,000 per workstation depending on availability of current city radio and computer equipment. Total estimated cost: $50,000 to$60,000. Annualized software support per console would be $500 to $1,000. ■ The current CAD system would have to be upgraded with a fire module solution to include all GIS, AVL, RMS Fire Station Alerting, On-screen Tablet Incident Command with GIS and Pre-Plan function, and other interfaces NCFD has with San Diego City. Currently the National City 911 Center only has the module and licensing for a law enforcement module.

93 □ Cost for this is dependent on features and if the current CAD system can perform all the functions the NCFD currently utilizes through San Diego City. Quote from current vendor would be needed to establish start-up and annualized fire CAD solution costs. ■ A priority medical dispatch solution would have to be purchased and added to the CAD to continue the efficiency of a prioritized medical dispatch the NCFD is currently operating under.
□ For four radio positions the initial start-up fee is estimated to be $85,000 to $95,000 and includes licensing for four positions, training software, case review software, on -site training, and ancillary components included in the system.
□ Annualized-licensing fees are estimated to be $21,000 to $25,000. ■ Two dispatchers per shift (1 call taker, 1 radio position) would have to be added (total of eight personnel).
□ The current starting hourly rate for 911 dispatcher in National City is $27.74/hour. At 2,080 hours/year, the annualized salary is $57,699 (+40% benefits=$80,779). The cost of eight personnel is estimated to be $646,228.
□ The Priority Medical Dispatch solution typically requires a dedicated Quality Assurance staff member. Annualized salary for this position is estimated to be $88,857 (dispatcher salary + 40% benefits +10% for QA supervisory work).

Overall, to implement fire dispatch in the NCPD 911 Center, CPSM estimates it w ould cost:
■ Startup fees, licensing, hardware: $135,000 to $155,000 + current CAD vendor quote to start up a fire CAD system software solution that can perform all functions the NCFD currently utilizes through San Diego City.
■ Annualized licensing fees and salaries (no overtime included): $756,585 to $761,085.

During the on-site visit CPSM conducted in March 2022, CPSM visited the San Diego Metro Fire Dispatch Center and spoke the Center’s senior staff, and also observed Center operations to include call-taking and dispatching. The center was adequately staffed (average of nine personnel on duty around the clock, including a uniform fire officer who serves as an operational liaison) and was performing all operations without incident. Based on our observations and discussion with NCFD and San Diego dispatch center staff, we view the San Diego center as a high-performing fire and EMS dispatch system.

Recommendation:
■ Based on the estimated start-up and annualized costs, the annualized costs for fire dispatching through the National City Police 911 Center would be almost double the cost of the contract with San Diego Metro Fire Dispatch. CPSM strongly recommends that National City continue with the current agreement with San Diego City for fire dispatch services. CPSM does recommend, however, that National City work with San Diego City to reduce the current fire dispatch agreement costs to offset the costs the NCFD incurs as the de facto fire department for Paradise Hills, a situation that was demonstrated in the analysis. (Recommendation No. 12.)