Private equity investments in public safety software leave rural fire departments with few affordable options

Fire department software may become too expensive 
for rural communities to buy. (Adobe Stock photo)

Rural fire departments have long relied on affordable software to track incidents and operations. But because of changes in software company ownership stemming from a flush of private equity investment "fire chiefs around the country are scrambling to manage shrinking options and soaring costs," reports Mike Baker of The New York Times.

Over the past decade, a handful of private equity firms have backed companies that are "aggressively investing in public safety systems, where tax dollars provide a steady source of revenue," Baker explains.

The fire-software services company, ESO, serves as an example. Investor dollars enabled ESO to buy up its competitors, shut them down, and push fire chiefs with few options to purchase ESO systems, which are priced significantly higher.

When the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department in northern Connecticut learned ESO had acquired its former software system and was shutting it down, ESO offered Norfolk an alternative system that "would raise the community’s costs from $795 per year to more than $5,000," Baker reports. Norfolk Fire scrambled and found a cheaper competitor, but shortly thereafter, ESO bought that company, too.

Volunteer fire departments are common, comprising 85% of the roughly 30,000 fire departments across the U.S., and many already struggle to maintain staffing and equipment standards. Norfolk's fire department has turned to using "silent auctions and karaoke fund-raisers to help sustain operations," Baker reports.

ESO maintains that its cost increases support innovation. But ESO improvements may never reach most rural fire departments; in fact, climbing costs could push some back to using paper records.