I recently got a phone call from someone who was tasked with evaluating the disciplinary process for a large fire department. This person had previously worked primarily with law enforcement, where policies, procedures, formal structures and extensive published literature exist related to the topic of discipline.
In contrast, the caller was finding little similar information pertaining to the fire service, but abundant publications about technical subjects such as incident command or equipment deployment. I was asked if I could give any insight about how fire departments view and manage discipline.
I laughed. Fire officers hate talking about discipline, I replied. They hate doing it. They hate defining themselves in that role. And as a result, things often do not turn out as they hope when disciplinary challenges arise. Why do fire officers hate being disciplinarians and why do their actions in this area often have less than optimal outcomes? I can think of six reasons.