Running head: A CHALLENGE FOR NIMS 1

A Challenge for NIMS
Assignment #1
Walter Hogan
James Rhyne
Senior Seminar in Criminal Justice
CRJ-499
Strayer University

A CHALLENGE FOR NIMS 2 After 9/11, Homeland Security Presidential Directives (HSPD) 5 and 8 mandated the establishment and implementation of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) as the standard that all “first Responders” must use when handling large-scale incidents. The stated purpose of HSPD 5 is “to enhance the ability of the United States to manage domestic incidents by establishing a single, comprehensive national incident management system.” But there was only one problem that was overlooked, and that problem was the training of first responders to effectively handle large scale incidents. NIMS-FEMA Emergency Management Institute offers over one hundred and fifty online courses (I have completed 142 courses) with the main interests and emphasis on how separate organizations work together in all hazards emergencies to save lives and protect property. Public safety’s handling of large scale incidents is always judged by how well they ended, or how many lives were lost or saved, property damage and how quickly was the affected community returned to normal. The question that still needs to be addressed is “how does one attempt to tackle a spontaneous event the size of 9/11 without training and preparation?” During 9/11, there were three major pitfalls with all first responders that I think contributed to some loss of life and posed endangerment to all first responders; the lack of interoperable communication, little or no cross discipline coordination, and no framework in place to that could have provided insight to respond to such a huge event. As with all types of disasters, everything begins at the local levels. Looking at this, it is obvious that the one piece of the NIMS, HSPD 5 overlooked how the initial phase of a disaster (natural or man-made), terror attack or a mass shooting would be handled and controlled by first responders. The training of first responders during the initial phase of any disaster, who in the
A CHALLENGE FOR NIMS 3 early stages of any incident is imperative because they are responsible for the protection and preservation of life, evidence, property, and the environment. HSPD 5 only identifies the term “first responder” and defines the all hazards approach, but the use of NIMS does not address the initial phase of an incident or event clearly enough to help first responders work their way through it. Remember, it is at the local level that determines if the event is too complex for them to handle and federal resources (when needed) will probably not arrive at the scene until the initial stages of the disaster has been reduced or subsided. In essence, the activities of NIMS and ICS during a disaster only discuss how forms are to be filled out and provide checklist/s that should be followed in order to restore order. What NIMS does not discuss in enough detail is that when first responders are called to a large-scale event, they can arrive to the sounds of gunfire, screaming or mortally wounded people, fires raging, crowds rushing, mobs forming, and other officers or firefighters so overcome by events that they cannot function. Responders are confronted with having to understand this utterly confusing problem and then somehow solve it. This problem has to be addressed because not only are the lives and safety of the first responders are at stake, but also those of the potential victims, the elderly, children to include trying to return the affected community back to normality as soon as possible. This problem has been a