Around the world, the month of June is known for floods, landslides, cyclones, hurricanes, brushfires, and wildfires, so let’s talk about policing’s ability to respond to natural disasters and their impacts on safety, infrastructure, and homeland security.

In this new era where disasters are increasing in frequency and ferocity, the toll is enormous. Climate change–related disasters can destabilize governments, make people more vulnerable to domestic threats and crimes, and cause mass displacements of individuals. Now is the time to have an honest and real conversation about how to bolster law enforcement/public safety partnerships and strategies to help us to be more resilient following disasters.

In the past, policing has provided evacuation, traffic control, and security operations at incidents. When these are at a small scale for a short time, with the number of officers not exceeding normal operations, policing does a pretty good job in managing these responsibilities. The problem is that when these incidents expand over multiple days or operational periods and have significantly more personnel assigned than we are accustomed to supporting, we will likely not be at our best. Led by Past President Cynthia Renaud, the IACP’s recent work on the U.S. response to the civil unrest after the death of George Floyd has given rise to many recommendations, which provide a starting point (see sidebar).

It is clear the policing profession must be better prepared to manage critical incidents that go beyond the scope of our typical daily operations. No matter the type of incident—man-made, natural, or a planned event—all levels of the organization must know the management system used in your country. In the United States, it is the National Incident Management System (NIMS), a key component of which is the Incident Command System (ICS). In the past, NIMS/ICS was seen as a fire service tool, but with increasingly complex events such as natural disasters and civil unrest, policing must do better at providing leadership and management of these incidents.

In Australia, the Australasian Inter-Service Incident Management System (AIIMS) is employed to manage incidents. New Zealand’s system is the Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS). In the United States, the Incident Management Team (IMT) Type 1–5 structure is used, depending on the complexity of the incident. IMTs are used to enhance or support the ICS during extended incidents.

The All-Hazards Incident Management Team (AHIMT) program, which has grown organically from the bottom up in the United States, is, in my opinion, the best capability that has been implemented in public safety since the terrible attacks 20 years ago on September 11, 2001. Currently, there are more than 100 AHIMTs around the United States. Type 3 AHIMTs are doing great work managing planned events, natural disasters, and man-made disasters across the United States. They provide planning and logistical support in our local communities, while training team members in the critical skills of incident leadership. They bring order to chaos and management skills to difficult incidents, all while increasing individual team members’ skills, which provides significant benefits to those members’ home agencies. The most successful of these teams are multidisciplinary, including personnel representing fire, police, medical, public works, public health, emergency management, and other related disciplines. As security and safety chair of a world ski championships event in 2015, I helped establish partnerships with 160 traditional response agencies. That experience and my experiences as an IMT member, planning section chief, incident commander, and team coordinator for over 15 years has informed my belief that the cornerstone for preparedness, readiness, and recovery is an effective incident management system.

It is important to include local police officers, sheriff’s deputies, state troopers, and other policing professionals in AHIMTs. This helps develop our members’ critical incident management skills and their ability to work in an ICS environment. To those agencies that have assigned employees to the teams, thanks for being risk-takers and jumping into this exciting environment! You are setting the stage for significant improvements in our profession. Our ability to effectively manage critical incidents and significant planned events builds our communities’ confidence and trust in public safety. I encourage police leaders to assist in developing IMTs in your community or region if there is not a team in your area or assign personnel to existing teams.

In 2010, the All-Hazards Incident Management Team Association (AHIMTA) was created to support teams and individual members in AHIMTs that have been formed at the local, regional, and state levels. The IACP has endorsed the work of the AHIMTA’s Interstate Incident Management Qualifications System (IIMQS) Guide. (More details of the system and the association, as well as the guide and other resources, can be found at www.ahimta.org.)

There is a lot being done in policing regarding incident management, public order policing, and the use of ICS by the profession, particularly following the difficult summer of 2020. In addition to efforts by FEMA’s National Coordination Group, Law Enforcement Subgroup, working groups of the IACP, and the work of other law enforcement associations, the AHIMTA has stood up a Law Enforcement Working Group.

The AHIMTA, in cooperation with the IACP, decided to review and understand what is hindering policing’s use of and adherence to ICS protocols and what would help law enforcement become stronger proponents of these management systems. A group of dedicated and experienced law enforcement and ICS professionals, current and retired, worked together over several months to understand and address these issues.

Five primary areas of improvement were identified by the working group that impact policing’s usage and commitment to the ICS and NIMS principles.

1. Law enforcement–focused NIMS/ICS (or the equivalent outside the United States) training

2. Law enforcement executive support for preparedness efforts

3. Nationally standardized Incident Action Plans to replace individual departmental operations and event plans

4. Skill development by use of emergency management systems at pre-planned events and incident shadowing by police personnel

5. Enhanced partnerships with emergency management professionals

These five principles can be used in any country to strengthen law enforcement’s ability to respond to critical incidents and gain the support of your communities. I also encourage the use of after-action reports to maintain currency and skills and to be a learning organization. Please act on this idea before your community or region’s next disaster! If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at president@theiacp.org. d