| AFD RANK | Male | Female | Caucasian | Hispanic | African-American | Other |
| Assistant Chief | 5 (100%) |
– | 3 (60%) |
1 (20%) |
1 (20%) |
– |
| Division Chief | 4 (80%) |
1 (20%) |
5 (100%) |
– | – | – |
| Battalion Chief | 33 (100%) |
– | 32 (97%) |
1 (3%) |
– | – |
| Captain | 69 (100%) |
– | 64 (92.8%) |
4 (5.8%) |
1 (1.5%) |
– |
| Lieutenant | 175 (98.9%) |
2 (1.1%) |
152 (85.9%) |
18 (10.2%) |
5 (2.8%) |
2 (1.1%) |
| Specialist | 187 (94.4%) |
11 (5.6%) |
163 (82.3%) |
25 (12.6%) |
10 (5.1%) |
– |
| Firefighter | 508 (92.7%) |
40 (7.3%) |
396 (72.3%) |
103 (18.8%) |
37 (6.8%) |
12 (2.2%) |
| All Ranks | 981 (94.8%) |
54 (5.2%) |
815 (78.7%) |
152 (14.7%) |
54 (5.2%) |
14 (1.4%) |
As Austin Firefighters Association President Stephen Truesdell notes, roughly 5% of the Austin Fire Department is female – and compared to the national average, approximately 3%, “that’s a good number.” Still, from looking at this breakdown of gender and ethnicity in the Austin Fire Department, it’s obvious that AFD – like departments around the country – has a long way to go before it’s as diverse as the community it serves.
Although women make up more than 7% of all firefighters and minorities almost 28%, the upper ranks are over-whelmingly male and white. Below Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr on the organization chart, of the next 112 positions, only one is a woman, and only eight are minorities.
This article appears in October 16 • 2009.