TFCA Accreditation The Texas Fire Chiefs Association (TFCA) - Best Practices Program measures all aspects of service, delivery, administrative protocols, and operational readiness with a 12-part process designed to evaluate departments with a self-assessment and third-party on-site evaluation. The program provides a set of metrics, performance guidelines, and best practices to help ensure our department meets its operational goals and fulfills its obligations to the community we serve. Pearland Fire Department started internally preparing to submit for this process in fiscal year 2023. A small committee was curated, directed by Chief Johnson and Chaired by Lieutenant Andrew Chuvala. Our kickoff meeting initiated on March 6, 2024. Pearland Fire was sought after and utilized to test the new submittal process for best
practices by TFCA as their organization went fully digitized. PFD was one of four departments in the State of Texas to be invited to pilot this new process. From there, the submittal process started. All 12 chapters were to be completed digitally, with dates and time stamps accompanying each document. As the submittal process progressed, we had to provide updates to the TFCA board on the process and how it may be improved for all departments throughout the state. Thousands of documentation pages were uploaded into the system, which were all evaluated by the TFCA Best Practices committee. A preliminary review was conducted, and the committee reconvened to provide updates and make sure recommendations were followed. In October of 2024 TFCA notified PFD that the final step in the process, the onsite visit, would happen on November 18- 19, 2024. During that site visit, all documents were reviewed again and several random in-person one-on-one interviews took place to ensure all expectations of a Best Practices department are being met. The results of that process is that Pearland Fire Department is the 34th department within the State of Texas to obtain the Best Practices designation as of December 10th, 2024.
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