False Response Times Prompt New LAFD Position

In light of a firestorm that has surrounded Los Angeles Fire Department’s response-time inaccuracies, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has created and filled a position to oversee the department’s data.

Jeff Godown will take a temporary seat with the LAFD to "create statistical data analysis system for the LAFD."

Godown starts Monday in a position that Villaraigosa created within the past week following "confusion" about fire response times, said Vicki Curry with the mayor's office.

The LAFD has been under fire recently for fudging response times for years, categorizing 6-minute responses the same as 5-minute responses.

Federal guidelines require fire companies to respond within 5 minutes 90 percent of the time. By lumping in the 6-minute times, the department was able to achieve an 86 percent as recently as 2008.

However, corrected data showed that in 2008, the LAFD was only hitting the 5-minute mark 64 percent of the time.

Godown previously served as the Interim Chief of the San Francisco Police Department and before that was Officer in Charge of LAPD’s COMPSTAT Bureau, a data system that he implemented at the LAPD in 2002 to generate maps of criminal hot spots.

The system has been touted as helping commanders decide how to best use their resources, which have become scarce following budget cuts.

"Due to the economic downturn and budget tightening throughout all police and fire departments, it is important that a process be implemented that allows for a more strategic look at all of the relevant data produced," Godown said in a statement.

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"This process will allow for a more detailed and thoughtful approach to running a large department such as the LAFD. By using this data to deploy resources and examine response times and other components of the Department, the LAFD will be able to be move toward a process that is more transparent to the needs of the community in which it serves."