Lincoln Fire and Rescue Receives Innovation Award

Lincoln Fire Chief Micheal Despain on Tuesday announced that Lincoln Fire and Rescue is the first recipient of the Randy R. Bruegman Agency Innovation Award.  The award is presented by the Center for Public Safety Excellence to an agency that has embraced continuous improvement, is focused on outcomes and embodies progressive leadership.  The award honors Chief Randy Bruegman, CFO, who had recently retired as the CPSE President, and was created to recognize his 25 years of dedicated service to CPSE from 1992 to 2017.

“The award is not just for LFR, rather it is a reflection of the community’s dedication to identify and pursue incentives important to them as citizens,” Despain said.  The award’s goal is to recognize, incentivize and advocate for innovation in the fire and emergency service.  It will be presented annually to a Commission on Fire Accreditation International-accredited agency that has worked collaboratively within their agency and community to innovate a practice leading to improved outcomes and serve as a model for the greater fire and emergency service.

Lincoln Fire and Rescue application for the award included a detailed synopsis of outcome measurement initiatives.  Key to the success of these initiatives was the pioneering formation of a community and employee stakeholder task force.  The task force developed a matrix to measure potential benefits for the community LFR serves.  This effort resulted in the identification of nine strategic initiatives and 26 goals to accurately measure LFR’s value to the average citizen.

Chief Bruegman served as a peer assessor for LFR’s initial accreditation site visit in 1997. Lincoln was one of the beta-testing sites for the inception of the accreditation.  More information on Lincoln Fire and Rescue is available at fire.lincoln.ne.gov.