The Center for Public Safety Excellence
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE) held its 2009 CPSE Excellence Conference in Orlando Florida on March 8-13, 2009. The conference began with meetings of the CPSE Board of Directors and the Commission on Professional Credentialing and the Commission on Fire Accreditation International.
The Commission on Professional Credentialing awarded the Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Designation to seventeen candidates while another four candidates were awarded the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Designation. One candidate, Chief Jack Taylor of the Lyon County EMS and Emporia, KS Fire Department, earned both the CFO and CMO designation. In addition to these new designees, the CPC has awarded renewal designation status to 56 CFOs since January 2009. Through the Chief Fire Officer (CFO) and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) professional designation programs, the CPC offers emergency services personnel guidance for career planning and development and recognizes lifelong career excellence and achievement. Designation demonstrates that an individual has developed a strategy for continued career improvement and development. There are a total of 630 CFOs and 34 CMOs. The CMO program was launched in 2008 to recognize EMS leaders from fire, non-fire governmental, private, hospital, and third party providers.
The Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) awarded accredited agency status to fourteen agencies. Five of those agencies protect Department of Defense installations. Ten of the agencies were reaccredited, while four were newly accredited including Bloomfield (NJ) Fire Department, Defense Supply Center Richmond Fire & Emergency Services, Defense Supply Center Columbus Fire & Emergency Services, and Searcy (AR) Fire Department. The Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) is committed to assisting and improving fire and emergency service agencies around the world in achieving organizational and professional excellence through its strategic self-assessment model and accreditation process to provide continuous quality improvement and enhancement of service delivery to the community and the world at large. There are 128 accredited fire and emergency services departments currently recognized by the Commission. There are 54 departments in various stages of their self-assessment and on the track to becoming accredited and an additional 183 departments are registered with the CFAI.
CPSE recognizes nearly 4,000 fire and emergency services professionals or agencies affiliated with the credentialing and accredited programs.