Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Brian Parmelee on October 27, 2011 at 5:00pm

Portland, Oregon arson investigators are swore police officers.  I would suggest contacting them directly to see how they have been set up.

 

Here in Springfield, Oregon we ran into the same issue with arson investigations and not having the expertise in our police department to follow through with the investigation.  Another deputy fire marshal and myself decided that we would start working the cases past just the origin and cause investigation part to include follow up intervals up to the time of arrest.  When we get a good suspect in sight we get the police department involved.  This has worked a lot better since the police department now gets the case where they have enough information to go forward and make an arrest.  As you stated most police departments do not have the expertise nor the time it takes to do a thorough arson investigation.  It's the old time vs benefit scenario with arsons being a low conviction rate that take a lot of man hours to complete.  FBI puts the conviction rate at approximately 16% with the footnote that it may actually be in the 5-8% rate because a lot of small fires go unreported as arsons.  We have been running in the 30-35% conviction rate since we have taken a more collaborative approach to arson investigations with our police department.  This type has been a win-win-win for the fire department, police department and citizens of the community.   

Permalink Reply by Jeff Allen on October 28, 2011 at 7:41am

In our area we teach that once the fire has been ruled incendiary, unless you have arrest powers and can swear out a criminal search warrant, you cannot continue the O&C.  That would disqualify regular fire investigators from continuing on the scene without law enforcement.  That's one of our problems here; when the probable accidental causes have ben ruled out most fire departments can't get a qualified investigator with arrest powers to pick it up and run with it.  And you are right on with the conviction rate; very low in most areas due to the work involved.  As all fires are presumed to be accidental this is the only criminal activity that must be proven in order to take to court.  Funny how when most police agencies publish their year end major crime stats, arson isn't even listed.  Nice to know the FBI still considers arson as a major crime (which is definately is).  Thanks for your reply; be safe.

Permalink Reply by Oldman on October 28, 2011 at 9:22am

In Texas, with few exception, only a licensed peace officer may make an arrest. An arson investigator by state law, must be licensed by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education,  and also hold a commission by the Texas Commission on Fire Protection.

Permalink Reply by Jeff Allen on October 31, 2011 at 7:38am

I understand that many but not all Fire Marshals in Texas also complete the full police academy.  Any idea what percentage of them are or are not police officers?

Permalink Reply by Russ on March 14, 2012 at 11:42pm

years ago my sheriff offered to put members of our arson task force through the police academy to become certified as reserve LEO's by the state of florida. it was a good plan until the fire chiefs got wind of it and put the nixie on it because they didnt like the idea of "their" fire investigators walking around with guns which i found out sometime later to mean that they were jealous of the dual status we would have have (politics-sigh). at the time i thought it was agreat idea and the course was informative. investigators having arrest powers is a local issue but i support the idea