Do Firefighters Suffer from this Bias?

Gordon Graham here and here we are now in May – and summer is around the corner and sadly wildland season comes with that and while I have written about the dangers of wildland season for everyone in the fire service – that danger is particularly high for those of you who are municipal firefighters as the task of fighting such a fire is “high-risk/low-frequency” meaning you don’t have the “memory markers” or “behavioral scripts” or “been there done that” experience – and absent experience all you have to rely on is training – so take advantage of any training you can in this regard prior to the season getting started. But this is not the focus of this piece.

Here is a fact pattern for you – taken from the world of law enforcement – that will help me make my point for this piece. The case name is “Mayfield vs. U.S.A” – and it involves a guy arrested by a number of Special Agents (I have always wondered if there are any regular agents) of the FBI. Here is a summary of the facts of this case and you will remember this event from six years ago.

On March 11, 2004, terrorists blew up a train in Spain, killing 191 people and injuring 1600 more. The Spanish cops on scene recovered fingerprints from a plastic bag containing explosive detonators. The fingerprints are sent to the FBI lab in Quantico and they put them into the computer system which produces 20 candidates whose known prints had features in common with what was identified as Latent Finger Print #17 (LFP-17) – and one of these candidates was Brandon Mayfield.

Mayfield is a U.S. Citizen, born in Oregon and raised in Kansas. He lives with his wife and three children in Aloha, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. He is 43 years old, a former Army officer with an honorable discharge, and a practicing lawyer. Mayfield is also a Muslim with strong ties to the Muslim community in Portland.

On March 17, 2004 a fingerprint specialist of the FBI concluded that Mayfield’s left index fingerprint matched LFP-17 and he submitted those prints for verification to another specialist and he concurs and then this was confirmed by a manager in the Bureau.

On March 20, FBI agents in Portland start to conduct surveillance of Mayfield and follow him and members of his family when they traveled to and from the mosque, his law office, the kid’s schools, and other family activities. They got a warrant to conduct covert physical searches of his home and to also gather electronic surveillance of his home and law office.

In April of 2004, the FBI sent his prints to the Spanish government and they took a look at the prints and the FBI’s report and concluded that there were too many unexplained dissimilarities between Mayfield’s prints and LFP-17 to verify the match. When the FBI met with the Spanish investigator in person, the Spanish investigators refused to validate the FBI’s conclusion regarding the “match”.

After the meeting with the Spanish police, the FBI submitted an affidavit to the court stating that experts considered LFP-17 a “100% positive identification” of Mayfield. The affidavit also included information about Mayfield’s religious practice and association with other Muslims.

To make a long story short – Mayfield was arrested in May and imprisoned for two weeks. Mayfield alleged that his family was not told where he was being held, but was told that his fingerprints matched those of the Madrid train bomber, and that he was the prime suspect in a crime punishable by death. While he was detained, national and international headlines declared him to be linked to the Madrid bombings.

On May 20, news reports revealed that Spanish police had matched LFP-17 with a man named Ouhane Daoud, an Algerian Citizen. Mayfield was released from prison the following day. And he and his family sued the Bureau – and the lawsuit is ongoing – but that is not the focus of this writing.

Here is my question to you. Does it appear to you that one or more people might have made up their mind too quickly on this case? Does it appear to you that one or more people “cherry picked” the evidence and found the things that agreed with their early (wrong) conclusion – and then ignored “exculpatory” evidence?

Why did they focus on Mayfield? He was one of “twenty” matches – and why did they not focus on one or more of the other nineteen? My guess is that when they learned the guy was a Muslim (and this is just a guess – but I consider it an educated guess) that this fact sort of “sealed the deal” – and they got locked into a course of action at that point.

I was a cop for 33 years – and saw this scenario so many times. You come on the scene of a murdered woman – who is your primary suspect? Of course, the husband! Why – because if you study enough murders of married women – the husband oftentimes is the DWDI (dude who did it).

Black cops working undercover and plainclothes are regularly assaulted and even shot by other on duty cops. If you want to read a chilling story, pick up “The Fence” by Nick Lehr for the story of Michael Cox – a cop in Boston and how he was almost killed by other Boston cops who made up their mind too quickly.

And back to the Mayfield case – who is blowing up things these days – why it is oftentimes a Muslim guy – and Mayfield is a Muslim and his prints were a “probable” and therefore he did it!

Now before you jump to any conclusions of your own about “how could an FBI Agent be that stupid” to arrest a guy when there was so much evidence he did not do it – or “how could the cops in Boston be so stupid” to assault a plainclothes cop – let me tell you that this happens a lot in many professions.

Study enough plane wrecks – and you will see that this “bias” is a cause in many of them. Pilots make up their mind too quickly. Study enough “friendly fire” tragedies in the military – and you will learn the same thing. Study enough “medical malpractice” tragedies committed by Doctors and you will see the same wrongheaded thinking.

So let me ask you this question. Do firefighters suffer from this “bias” where you might make up your mind on a situation prior to ascertaining all the facts – including those that might disagree with your initial assumption? Have you ever made up your mind on a patient who had all the symptoms of being drunk – and you were treating him as you would a drunk – and then someone from the family told you he was a diabetic?

Not to digress, but during my cop career, I almost killed a guy one night because I had made up my mind that he was drunk – when in fact he was very sick with diabetes. Thank God for an alert Doctor on duty at the jail.

But back to your job. Have you ever made up your mind on a structure fire – where you “knew” the internal construction of a building prior to entry – only to learn that it was “different” once you got into the interior?

And now back to what is coming up in the next few months – wildland season. Earlier in this piece I encouraged you to get as much training as you could prior to the season – the study of past tragedies is also very valuable.

If you have not read “The Thirtymile Fire” by John Maclean – this book is an eye opener. Also, learn about the “ten and the eighteen” – and start loading your “hard drive” so that you will have the memory markers to allow you to perform well and come home safely.

Please be acutely aware though of the dangers of “bias” and how these “memory markers” that you are picking up might lock you into a course of behavior that could end up in a tragedy. So, during this season if you get assigned to such a fire, please keep your eyes, ears and nose open – be aware of all of your senses and what they are telling you – be aware of shifting weather patterns – and listen to the advice and concerns of your co-workers – and never lock yourself into a course of action which cannot be altered unless you are absolutely certain – and I mean the “double and triple check” type of certainty.

And for the retired people who might be reading this piece – if you still have ties to your agency – take the time to drop into your former station and share some of your “memory markers” and “experiences” with the newer kids on your department. Who knows – your actions could make a big difference.

That is all for now. Please take the time to work safely and I will see you next month.

Gordon Graham
Co-President, Lexipol

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