ARSON PREVENTION: AN ANALYSIS OF THE RED CAP PROGRAM OF THE NEW YORK CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which the Red Cap Program was successful during the first two years of this operation. The semistructured interview method was used to develop a comprehensive and indepth analysis of a series of variables concerning the Red Cap Program. A review of documents was employed to compare the number of fire-related incidents which occurred in the City of New York during the first two years the Red Cap Program was in operation with those which occurred during the last two years prior to the program\u27s inception. Other documents provided a comparison between the number of structural and suspicious fires which occurred in certain districts during the months when the program was present with those which occurred in the same districts during similar months of the previous year when the program was not present. Some documents were employed to compare the number of structural and suspicious fires which occurred in certain districts during the entire year when the program was present, from two to five months of the year, with those which occurred in the same districts during the previous year, when the Red Cap Program was not present. The major focus of the study was an evaluation of the program\u27s effectiveness during the first two years of its operation. The Red Cap Program operated in nine districts. The number of months in each district ranged from two to five. During the operations, five districts experienced an increase in the number of structural fires, while suspicious fires rose in six districts and declined in three. Statistics for the entire year where the program operated from two to five months, indicated that the number of structural fires declined in six districts and rose in three others, as suspicious fires declined in six districts, rose in two and remained stable in one. During the first two years of Red Cap, there were fewer arson-related fires, deaths, damaged buildings and fewer false alarms. These statistics are tentative because Red Cap presence may have resulted in more accurate reports by Chief Officers