- Author
- Kennedy, T. J.
- Title
- Incident Command Technology Systems for Public Safety. Final Report.
- Coporate
- Center for Technology Commercialization, Inc., Westborough, MA
- Keywords
- safety | fire departments | technology utilization | management systems | emergencies
- Identifiers
- focus group priorities for dual-use technologies for ICS; similarities/differences: police and fire services technology needs; protocol/process issues; recommendations to NIJ/OST; CTC focus group findings compared to McKinsey Report
- Abstract
- The National Institute of Justice Office of Science and Technology (NIJ/OST) entered into a Cooperative Agreement (#2000-MU-MU-KO19) with the Public Safety Technology Center (PSTC) in September 2000, to conduct a research project to identify the public safety technology needs for effective incident command systems. Critical incidents are extraordinary events that require the coordination of numerous resources at all levels of public safety. Unfortunately, during many large-scale operations, the ability to manage the situation effectively seems to decrease in direct proportion to the number of agencies and personnel involved, due to many factors, including: different and varied operating procedures and protocols, terminology, the interoperability of communications and information systems and/or incompatible or outdated equipment. In addition, because it is not uncommon for responding agencies to have a very limited understanding of the procedures and terminology of the other agencies involved, it is far too common that the person(s) in charge is unable to communicate a strategy or plan of action during those first critical minutes. This report presents a comprehensive examination of the technology needs of public safety practitioners when responding to a major incident and highlights the need for unified incident command. The Incident Command System (ICS), developed by the Federal Emergency Management agency (FEMA) and the National Fire Academy (NFA), and used for many years by the fire service, breaks down an incident into its component parts, and then assigns appropriate personnel to each task. Data for this report was collected largely from extensive research into current and developing ICS technologies and from focus groups made up of police, fire and emergency services practitioners. Two focus groups--one that was made up of law enforcement and emergency services and the one that was made up of fire personnel-- convened in August 2001, just weeks prior to the events of September 11 tho Both groups, who first met as two separate focus groups (law enforcementl EMS group and fire group) for one day, then together as one comprehensive "public safety" focus group for a second day, identified their major technology needs when responding to critical incidents and discussed, at length, the following major topics: (1) critical incident management, including communication hardware/software, mobile command centers and technologies that support a unified command response; and (2) dual use technologies for fire and emergency management that are, or might be, currently used by law enforcement.