An overview of the National Incident Management System.

1. The National Incident Management System: Rethinking Command and Control
By Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.), MPA
An Army is a collection of armed men obliged to obey one man.
Every change in the rules which impairs the principle weakens the army.
-William Tecumseh Sherman
Problems in the field do not improve until someone takes charge. From the
simplest radio call to a major terrorist incident, the situation doesn’t move from chaos to
normalcy without a leader. Thinking back on your career you can likely remember
situations spiraling downward because a lack of leadership caused poor communications,
inconsistent missions and jeopardized safety.
Clearly, a law enforcement agency’s response to an incident is greatly improved
by establishing strong leadership at the scene. Through real-life situations we have
learned hard lessons about tactical leadership concepts such as unified command, span of
control and the necessity of good followership. Sometimes, law enforcement isn’t the
leader at the scene of an incident, but it almost always part of the larger mission. By
exploring how tactical command concepts have developed and examining some of the
key components of the state-of-the-art response methodology we can improve our onscene leadership skills.
Developing a national standard
In 1991, in Oakland, California a wildfire devastated the East Bay Hillsi. Before
it was over, 3400 homes were destroyed; one police officer, one firefighter and 25
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2. civilians were killed. Although California had the Statewide Fire and Rescue Mutual Aid
System, the response of hundreds of first responders (police, fire, medical and public
utilities) was uncoordinated primarily because they had different organizational structures
and command systems. By 1993, in response to the 1991 Oakland fire, the California
Legislature mandated the use of the Standardized Emergency Management System
(SEMS) which incorporates the Incident Command System (ICS)ii.
In 1994, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) adopted SEMSiii
as its command and control paradigm. Throughout the 1990s, many agencies, such as the
United States Coast Guardiv, began to adopt SEMS/ICS. The 9/11 Commission noted
that the emergency response to the World Trade Center (WTC) was much different from
the response to the Pentagon. In addition to the WTC first responders having a much
more difficult mission because the disaster occurred hundreds of feet above their heads,
the command and control response in New York was different than the response in
Washington.
Washington, D.C. is an area rife with overlapping and contiguous first responder
agencies. Just prior to 9/11, many of the agencies in D.C. participated in a SEMS/ICS
disaster response simulation. The agencies had adopted and trained in SEMS/ICS. The
9/11 commission report compared and contrasted the Pentagon response with the NYC
response. They noted that the use of SEMS/ICS by agencies responding to the Pentagon
had enhanced coordination, speeded rescue and recovery operations and saved lives.
The formation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) included the
folding of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) into the DHS
bureaucratic structure. Based on recommendations from the 9/11 Commission Report,
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3. the DHS adopted SEMS/ICS as the National Incident Management System (NIMS).
NIMS is now our nation’s method of first responder command and control. Indeed, after
January 1, 2004, adoption and training in NIMS is a mandatory requirement for DHS
grant funding. In other words, if your agency has not adopted and trained in NIMS, you
can lose points in the grant funding review process. Perhaps more importantly, when
your community is faced with a major event, a lack of standardized command and control
systems can cause the loss of life, additional property damage and a delay in returning to
normal. The foundation of NIMS is the Incident Command System (ICS).
Unified Command
The heart of ICS is the concept of Unified Commandv. Unified Command is
founded in the leadership principle of Unity of Command; wherein each person within an
organization reports to only one designated person. Whenever multiple jurisdictions
and/or multiple agencies from within a jurisdiction become involved in an incident each
brings its own chain of command. The ICS concept calls for responding agencies to join
together in a Unified Command for the duration of the incident.
Production Note: Call out Box: Unified Command has a number of advantages:

One set of objectives

Collective approaches

Improved information flow/coordination

Better understanding of objectives, priorities, limitations, and
restrictions

No compromise of authority

Each agency’s plans, actions, and constraints are known
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4. 
Optimizes combined efforts
To facilitate unified command, agencies must adopt a certain protocols. For
instance, ICS calls for agencies to use common terminology when responding to an ICS
led incident, use a designated modular command structure; and, certain common
command and control principles. Typically, agencies overcome differences in
terminology by emphasizing communications in plain language. Codes like the “ten
system” are replaced with plain language. Although this may somewhat lengthen
communications, under emergency circumstances clarity trumps brevity.
Incident Command
The first step in returning any emergency situation to normal is someone taking
charge. ICS is different from many other bureaucratic structures in that ICS calls for the
most qualified person to assume responsibility over an incident. Imagine a police officer
working graveyards and seeing black smoke billowing against the night sky. He or she
doesn’t know where the fire is burning, but using the smoke as a landmark navigates to
the fire. Arriving before fire personnel, the officer must temporarily take charge.
Although they don’t have fire fighting equipment the officer can make a “situation
report” requesting fire personnel, begin evacuation, establish a perimeter and determine
ingress and egress routes. That police officer is, at the beginning, the Incident
Commander.
After the arrival of the firefighters, the ranking firefighter becomes the Incident
Commander because they are the most qualified person to lead the incident. This is the
beginning of a Unified Command. The police officer still maintains the perimeter and
assist in keeping ingress and egress routes open, but they are essentially subordinate to
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5. the firefighter who is now the Incident Commander. Conversely, if the burning structure
contained a sniper, the police officer would maintain incident command because they are
better equipped to handle the sniper.
Production Note: Call out Box:
ICS has been proven effective for
responding to all types of incidents, including:

Hazardous materials

Planned events

Natural disasters

Multi-agency law enforcement incidents like warrant services,
complex investigations

Multiple casualties (major traffic collisions, fires, etc.)

Wide-area search and rescue missions
Incident Command Structure
ICS is referred to as a modular system because it has the capacity to expand and
contract based on the emergency. If the problem can be handled with few personnel and
minimal resources then an ICS based Command Postvi may only have an incident
commander who makes decisions, plans and assigns tasks. An emergency with only an
incident commander would be relatively small and short in duration. However, as an
emergency outgrows the ability of a single person, modules can be added.
Production Note: Insert the diagram with the Caption: An emergency
could be handled with an incident commander and four subordinate
commanders. The incident command might also have an Information
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6. Officer for the media, a Safety Officer to monitor safety conditions; and,
Liaison Officer as the on-scene contact for other agencies.
Usually the first module, or subordinate commander added, is an Operations
Chief. This person is responsible for carrying out the direction of the incident
commander. The Operations Chief might have additional assistant chiefs either divided
by the geography of the incident or by the types of services. An example of geographic
division would be an inner and outer perimeter. Or, in the case of a relatively localized
emergency, the Operations Chief might allocate subordinate commands based on duties.
For example, at a local emergency you might have an Operations Chief in charge of a fire
branch and another in charge of a law enforcement branch.
The next module added might be the Logistics Chief. This person is responsible
for obtaining, organizing and allocating all resources such as personnel, equipment and
supplies. For instance, during a flood the Incident Commander might direct the
Operations Chief to conduct helicopter rescue operations. The Operations Chief would
communicate the personnel and equipment needs to the Logistic Chief. The Logistic
Chief would locate and assign personnel and resources to the mission. The Operations
Chief would brief the personnel on the mission and oversee completion.
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7. We all know that situations do not unfold as clinically as has been described.
However, the closer we come to handling emergencies within the framework of ICS the
more lives and property we can save. Moreover, emergency situations are brought to
conclusion by getting ahead of the emergency. This is done through the ICS planning
process. At larger emergencies (based on size and duration) a Planning Chief is needed.
This person takes the overall goals of the Incident Commander and prepares Action Plans
which are implemented by the Operations Chief. This frees the Operations Chief to
handle the here and now, while having someone else prepare for the next step.
Span of Control
ICS recognizes that you simply can’t do everything yourself and that you can only
effectively work directly with a limited number of people. While an Incident
Commander may ultimately have thousands of personnel deployed, he or she can only
communicate directly with relatively few. Span of Control is the management concept
that a leader can only directly supervise a limited number of people. The number often
cited is somewhere between seven and ten. This same principle applies to all subordinate
personnel. The Operations Chief has seven to ten direct reports, and so on and so forth,
down the chain of command.
The National Incident Management System (NIMS) relies on the Incident
Command System for the operational management of disasters and emergencies. Many
agencies are, in someway, adopting and training in NIMS/ICS. As a first responder you
can improve your incident leadership skills in at least two ways. First, you should seek
certified training from the DHS. Any person can sign on and use the FEMA training
tools to receive certified training in NIMS/ICS as well as a wide variety of disaster
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8. related courses. Moreover, once you successfully complete these web-based courses an
official certificate of completion is sent to you. If you have been certified, the US
Department of Labor has a number of e-tools, or web-based tutorials for refresher
training. Among them is an excellent overview on ICS. You can access the e-tools at
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/ics/.
About the Author:
Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.), MPA is the owner of Hi Tech Criminal
Justice Online and the author of Police Technology (Prentice Hall), Leadership: Texas
Hold ‘em Style (Quill Driver/Word Dancer Press) and, NYPD to LAPD: An Introduction
to Policing (Prentice Hall). He can be reached at raymond@hitechcj.com.
i
Buntin, John, “Disaster Master” Governing Magazine/December 2001
http://www.governing.com/archive/2001/dec/disaster.txt (August 6, 2003)
ii
Cardwell, Michael D., “Nationwide Application of the Incident Command System is the Key” The FBI
Law Enforcement Bulletin, October 2000.
iii
Federal Emergency Management Agency, Exemplary Practices in Emergency Management, Standardized
Emergency Management System (SEMS), http://www.fema.gov/rrr/exp_06.shtm (May 2, 2003)
iv
Cardwell, Michael D., “Nationwide Application of the Incident Command System is the Key” The FBI
Law Enforcement Bulletin, October 2000.
v
The idea of Unified Command is a fairly common military principle. The operation of combined arms in
a defined geographic area or defined mission require that one commander direct all operations.
vi
With the Incident Command System (ICS), the location where the Incident Commander manages the
emergency is called the Incident Command Post. Wide-spread emergencies are often coordinated and
managed through the use of a pre-designated facility commonly called an Emergency Operations Center
(EOC). Larger emergencies may have several field Incident Command Posts (ICP) that are coordinated
through an EOC. The EOC, receiving information from the ICP, coordinates the deployment of personnel
and resources to the various ICPs. The ICPs, use the personnel and resources to manage the incident
locally. This is the type of arrangement we could have expected during Katrina. A regional EOC
managing the flow of personnel and resources to smaller EOCs or Field ICPs.
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