LAFD kills Twitter Incident Alerts

[LAflyer]

Based on City Attorney recommendation due to purported privacy concerns the department will no longer provide the public or media with basic information about fires, medical calls, traffic accidents or other emergencies it responds to.

Story:
LAFD Mum on Public Information About Fires, Traffic Accidents, Emergencies | NBC Los Angeles

Statement from Fire Chief, Brian Cummings:
LAFD News & Information: LAFD Reviews Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

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[Jay911]

That's disappointing. Many agencies have seen fit to deliver information to the media and public that doesn't violate HIPAA or similar legislation in other countries (i.e. mine) by ways of things like simple omission of specific address components.

I suspect it has a lot to do with the recent media coverage of LAFD's run stats. Again, disappointing, because those of us in the fire service have always considered LAFD to be one of the more progressive departments in terms of public information access.

 

[PJaxx]

Twitter and email alerts seem to be back up

As of 10:40 AM it appears LAFD may have resumed posting fire incidents including the location via Twitter and LAFD ALERT

These have always tended to be about 10 minutes delayed, perhaps to avoid continuous posting of what turn
out to be false or insignificant calls.

Maybe they'll be screening what gets posted more cautiously to avoid HIPAA issues, just as CHP screens so much of their activity. Better than a total blackout.

 

[karldotcom]

The information started flowing again this morning....last night the City Attorney's office called BS that they were involved.

 

[icis_monitor]

I am glad that they started the tweeting again. the thought that they would be deliberately restricting information to the public that we have every right to have spoonfed to us was leading me to believe that they had something very nasty to hide. It is their responsibility to provide us with information in as many difrernt forms as possible so that we dont have to go to the trouble of filing those public record requests.

 

[LAflyer]

Related or not, it seems the LAFD brass is doing a fine job of getting ever more bad press these days.

Besides the multiple denials, change of story, and confusing clarifications regarding their response time fiasco they seem to be digging themselves a deeper hole in the media with this abrupt and what looks like retaliatory clamp down on incident info.

At the end this might make a good example text book study of how an agency should not handle a crisis and their poor response to the media and public enquiry.

It’s really a shame, as for the most part the citizenry of Los Angeles have been strong supporters of the department, and these events only work to create doubt and weaken the existing goodwill.

 

[Jay911]

Take a look at City of Toronto (Ontario, Canada) Fire to see how an automated Twitter/live-CAD can work pretty well.

Toronto Fire (@tofire) on Twitter

City of Toronto: Toronto Fire Services

Numericals for the street is kept off, and only the basic description of the call type is included.

 

[LAflyer]

Mayor gets involved

"The mayor's directive marks the first time since the controversy began that Villaraigosa has publicly broken ranks with Fire Chief Brian Cummings and his policies.

"At a time when the Los Angeles Fire Department needs more transparency — not less — I am directing you to immediately resume releasing information that provides LAFD incident specifics without violating federal law," Villaraigosa wrote in a letter to Cummings."

Mayor Villaraigosa orders fire chief to stop withholding information - latimes.com


Besides the mayor members of the City Council also question the wisdom and timing of with holding the incident data.

"Councilman Mitchell Englander, who chairs the city's Public Safety Committee, said the timing "couldn't be worse."

"While they're being questioned by the city and by the media about their fuzzy math ... to come up with something like this makes no sense," he said.

"I understand patient privacy and perhaps not releasing names," said Englander, who sits on a board that governs five hospitals. "But to withhold the information in terms of location and other details does not make any sense."

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[karldotcom]

LAFD data controversy: Mayoral aide's letter to City Attorney on LAFD data - Documents - Los Angeles Times

Here is the latest on this issue..... Mayors office vs. City Attorney