Our Story

About Gary

Gary Friedel is the founder and CEO of Modern Public Safety an International Business Continuity Consulting firm. He brings more than 28 years of public safety experience to your organization.

The Beginning

Before beginning his career in Business Continuity Consulting, his journey began as a police officer for the City of Dallas in 1990 where after graduating #2 in his academy class he went on to successfully work the busy urban streets of Dallas. During his service, he received commendations including one for successfully apprehending two-armed bank robbers. While on patrol, Officer Friedel recognized these suspects based on an earlier radio description and a high-speed chase ensued for over 5 miles ending with the suspects’ vehicle crashing into a fence at Love Field Airport. The suspects fled on foot and a foot chase ensued by Officer Friedel and JC Foster ending in the safe apprehension of both suspects with no injuries or serious property damage. This arrest cleared up over a dozen armed bank robberies that had occurred in Dallas and Houston Texas.

As a son of a career firefighter Gary had dreams of serving as his father and after serving successfully as a Dallas Police Officer joined the Dallas Fire Department and began his new adventure. The Dallas Fire Department academy program was a rigorous military-style academy followed by an intense Paramedic program delivered by their partner at the prestigious University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. Graduating at the top of the fire academy firefighter Friedel was soon working on the busiest EMS unit in the nation at a station in Downtown Dallas as a paramedic firefighter. Working 24-hour shifts in an urban setting while running extreme call volume would provide frustration, exhaustion as well as amazing and invaluable experiences for firefighter Friedel that would dramatically re-shape his world view. These experiences, although the most difficult working conditions he would ever encounter, taught him how to successfully serve people from vast and diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. More than anything Dallas taught firefighter Friedel how to provide great medical care in the worst situations. Additionally, he began to think that there were better ways to serve a community and set his sights on a new adventure and career path, eventually leading to Business Continuity Consulting.

A Big Change

Starting a family, he set his sights on finding a place to build a home in the mountains of Colorado while serving a new community as an EMT firefighter. He soon found himself working for Pueblo Colorado as a recruit firefighter. Pueblo is a historical steel manufacturing town with a rich and colorful history including the “cooling off” place for Al Capone’s Chicago gang members. Working hard to establish his reputation he soon found himself recruited by the Chief to help the department develop a training academy for new hires similar to the one large cities like Dallas used. As a training officer, he soon developed standardized training programs that became well regarded throughout the department. Serving in a very traditional firefighter culture within a community that was, unfortunately, experiencing significant urban decay, many structure fires were providing new lessons. Soon he promoted and was given extra responsibility for serving on the countywide hazardous materials response team. Included in this new role was the responsibility of responding to the Army Chemical Depot that stored aging nerve and mustard gases from World War I to the cold war era. This was another important chapter before starting a Business Continuity Consulting firm.

Innovation and Risk

Always looking for smarter ways to accomplish work firefighter Friedel would soon find himself taking a big risk to become innovative. Traditionally firefighting tactics employ fire crews making an aggressive interior fire attack with little or no visibility and other obvious hazards. Friedel has recently read an article about a new ventilation technique being used successfully by a California fire department. This technique promised to remove most of the smoke thus giving interior fire crews a window of opportunity to walk, instead of crawl in the darkness to the seat of the fire. Initially adopting this technique on a limited basis, Friedel gained “buy in” from his shift. Soon most of the department was interested and within a year all shifts utilized the technique safely. Serving successfully for a decade Friedel soon found himself looking for the next adventure, eventually leading to Business Continuity Consulting.

Influencing Greater Numbers

Seeing an opportunity to serve thousands of fire departments through innovation and improvements instead of one Gary took his skills to higher education. After starting the first EMT firefighter school in Oklahoma, Gary was recruited by the prestigious Oklahoma State University where the first firefighter textbooks were published and now serves an international audience.

Responsible for statewide delivery of firefighter training academies that included complex and high-risk skills training. The program was in need of updating and refurbishment to re-establish its reputation. Hiring a diverse cadre of instructional staff, Gary rebuilt the program and began reaching out to previous customers to sell our new product. After developing and empowering the new staff, Gary began building partnerships with local governments and technology centers across the State of Oklahoma. This approach leveraged our existing budget and allowed us to dramatically increase training and professional development opportunities in areas/regions that had previously little or no opportunities.

During his tenure at Oklahoma State University, he received performance awards from the University as well as public recognition from professional organizations which paved his way for becoming a member of the influential National Fire Protection Association committee member (NFPA 1001 firefighter qualification standard). His greatest honor was being invited to contribute to the writing of the premier firefighter textbook worldwide, Essentials of Firefighting, 5th edition. Experiences like these is why you should consider Modern Public Safety as your next Business Continuity Consulting firm.