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An overview of the Incident Command System (ICS), focusing on its features and organization. ICS is a standardized approach to managing incidents, which includes common terminology, management by objectives, facilities and resources management, and transfer of command. The document also discusses the roles and responsibilities of various command staff members and sections in ICS, such as the Incident Commander, Command Staff, and Intelligence/Investigations Function.
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Incident Command System (ICS)
ICS was developed in the 1970s following a series of catastrophic fires in California's urban interface. Property damage ran into the millions, and many people died or were injured. The personnel assigned to determine the causes of these outcomes studied the case histories and discovered that response problems could rarely be attributed to lack of resources or failure of tactics. Surprisingly, studies found that response problems were far more likely to result from inadequate management than from any other single reason.
The Incident Command System:
nonemergency situations.
the country.
The ICS is a management system designed to enable effective and efficient domestic incident management by integrating a combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications operating within a common organizational structure, designed to enable effective and efficient domestic incident management. A basic premise of ICS is that it is widely applicable. It is used to organize both near-term and long-term field-level operations for a broad spectrum of emergencies, from small to complex incidents, both natural and manmade. ICS is used by all levels of government—Federal, State, local, and tribal—as well as by many private-sector and nongovernmental organizations. ICS is also applicable across disciplines. It is normally structured to facilitate activities in five major functional areas: command, operations, planning, logistics, and finance and administration.
Incident Complexity
“Incident complexity” is the combination of involved factors that affect the probability of control of an incident. Many factors determine the complexity of an incident, including, but not limited to, area involved, threat to life and property, political sensitivity, organizational complexity, jurisdictional boundaries, values at risk, weather, strategy and tactics, and agency policy.
Incident complexity is considered when making incident management level, staffing, and safety decisions.
Various analysis tools have been developed to assist consideration of important factors involved in incident complexity. Listed below are the factors that may be considered in analyzing incident complexity:
Transfer of Command
The process of moving the responsibility for incident command from one Incident Commander to another is called “transfer of command.” It should be recognized that transition of command on an expanding incident is to be expected. It does not reflect on the competency of the current Incident Commander.
There are five important steps in effectively assuming command of an incident in progress.
Step 1: The incoming Incident Commander should, if at all possible, personally perform an assessment of the incident situation with the existing Incident Commander.
Step 2: The incoming Incident Commander must be adequately briefed.
This briefing must be by the current Incident Commander, and take place face-to-face if possible. The briefing must cover the following:
The ICS Form 201 is especially designed to assist in incident briefings. It should be used whenever possible because it provides a written record of the incident as of the time prepared. The ICS Form 201 contains:
Step 3: After the incident briefing, the incoming Incident Commander should determine an appropriate time for transfer of command.
Step 4: At the appropriate time, notice of a change in incident command should be made to:
Step 5: The incoming Incident Commander may give the previous Incident Commander another assignment on the incident. There are several advantages of this:
gain experience.
ICS Organization
Liaison Officer. They report directly to the Incident Commander.
management (Operations, Planning, Logistics, Finance/Administration). The Section level is organizationally between Branch and Incident Commander.
major parts of the incident operations. The Branch level is organizationally between Section and Division/Group in the Operations Section, and between Section and Units in the Logistics Section. Branches are identified by the use of Roman Numerals, by function, or by jurisdictional name.
area. The Division level is organizationally between the Strike Team and the Branch.
located between Branches (when activated) and Resources in the Operations Section.
logistics, or finance/administration activity.
established and sent to an incident, or formed at an incident.
communications and a leader.
crew or team of individuals with an identified work supervisor that can be used on an incident.
Overall Organizational Functions
ICS was designed by identifying the primary activities or functions necessary to effectively respond to incidents. Analyses of incident reports and review of military organizations were all used in ICS development. These analyses identified the primary needs of incidents.
As incidents became more complex, difficult, and expensive, the need for an organizational manager became more evident. Thus in ICS, and especially in larger incidents, the Incident Commander manages the organization and not the incident.
In addition to the Command function, other desired functions and activities were:
sole responsibility for the tactical direction and control of resources.
incident and the managing of claims.
incident, involved agencies, and the public.
in an effective manner.
Incident Commander
The Incident Commander is technically not a part of either the General or Command Staff. The Incident Commander is responsible for overall incident management, including:
effectiveness of that organization.
Command Staff Responsibilities
Public Information Officer
Determine, according to direction from the IC, any limits on information release. Develop accurate, accessible, and timely information for use in press/media briefings. Obtain IC’s approval of news releases. Conduct periodic media briefings. Arrange for tours and other interviews or briefings that may be required. Monitor and forward media information that may be useful to incident planning. Maintain current information, summaries, and/or displays on the incident. Make information about the incident available to incident personnel. Participate in the planning meeting.
Safety Officer Identify and mitigate hazardous situations.
Ensure safety messages and briefings are made. Exercise emergency authority to stop and prevent unsafe acts. Review the Incident Action Plan for safety implications. Assign assistants qualified to evaluate special hazards. Initiate preliminary investigation of accidents within the incident area. Review and approve the Medical Plan. Participate in planning meetings.
Liaison Officer Act as a point of contact for agency representatives.
Maintain a list of assisting and cooperating agencies and agency representatives. Assist in setting up and coordinating interagency contacts. Monitor incident operations to identify current or potential interorganizational problems. Participate in planning meetings, providing current resource status, including limitations and capabilities of agency resources. Provide agency-specific demobilization information and requirements.
Assistants In the context of large or complex incidents, Command Staff members may need one or more assistants to help manage their workloads. Each Command Staff member is responsible for organizing his or her assistants for maximum efficiency.
Additional Command Staff
Additional Command Staff positions may also be necessary depending on the nature and location(s) of the incident, and/or specific requirements established by the Incident Commander. For example, a Legal Counsel may be assigned directly to the Command Staff to advise the Incident Commander on legal matters, such as emergency proclamations, legality of evacuation orders, and legal rights and restrictions pertaining to media access. Similarly, a Medical Advisor may be designated and assigned directly to the Command Staff to provide advice and recommendations to the Incident Commander in the context of incidents involving medical and mental health services, mass casualty, acute care, vector control, epidemiology, and/or mass prophylaxis considerations, particularly in the response to a bioterrorism event.
Source: NIMS
General Staff Responsibilities
Operations Section Chief
The Operations Section Chief is responsible for managing all tactical operations at an incident. The Incident Action Plan (IAP) provides the necessary guidance. The need to expand the Operations Section is generally dictated by the number of tactical resources involved and is influenced by span of control considerations. Major responsibilities of the Operations Section Chief are to:
agencies involved in the incident.
Planning Section Chief
The Planning Section Chief is responsible for providing planning services for the incident. Under the direction of the Planning Section Chief, the Planning Section collects situation and resources status information, evaluates it, and processes the information for use in developing action plans. Dissemination of information can be in the form of the IAP, in formal briefings, or through map and status board displays. Major responsibilities of the Planning Section Chief are to:
supporting materials into the IAP.
Resources, Situation Units).
Operations.
Agency Representatives
An Agency Representative is an individual assigned to an incident from an assisting or cooperating agency. The Agency Representative must be given authority to make decisions on matters affecting that agency's participation at the incident.
Agency Representatives report to the Liaison Officer or to the Incident Commander in the absence of a Liaison Officer.
Major responsibilities of the Agency Representative are to:
filled.
specialists are assigned from the agency.
agency's involvement at the incident.
departure.
Technical Specialists
Certain incidents or events may require the use of Technical Specialists who have specialized knowledge and expertise. Technical Specialists may function within the Planning Section, or be assigned wherever their services are required.
While each incident dictates the need for Technical Specialists, some examples of the more commonly used specialists are:
(Continued on next page.)
Additional advisory positions may also be necessary depending on the nature and location(s) of the incident, and/or specific requirements established by the Incident Commander. For example, a Legal Counsel may be assigned directly to the Command Staff to advise the Incident Commander on legal matters, such as emergency proclamations, legality of evacuation orders, and legal rights and restrictions pertaining to media access. Similarly, a Medical Advisor may be designated and assigned directly to the Command Staff to provide advice and recommendations to the Incident Commander in the context of incidents involving medical and mental health services, mass casualty, acute care, vector control, epidemiology, and/or mass prophylaxis considerations, particularly in the response to a bioterrorism event. These positions may also be considered Technical Specialists.
Intelligence/Investigations Function
Unified Command
The Unified Command organization consists of the Incident Commanders from the various jurisdictions or agencies operating together to form a single command structure.
Overview
Unified Command is an important element in multijurisdictional or multiagency domestic incident management. It provides guidelines to enable agencies with different legal, geographic, and functional responsibilities to coordinate, plan, and interact effectively.
As a team effort, Unified Command overcomes much of the inefficiency and duplication of effort that can occur when agencies from different functional and geographic jurisdictions, or agencies at different levels of government, operate without a common system or organizational framework.
All agencies with jurisdictional authority or functional responsibility for any or all aspects of an incident participate in the Unified Command structure and contribute to the following process and responsibilities:
incident objectives.
The exact composition of the Unified Command structure will depend on the location(s) of the incident (i.e., which geographical administrative jurisdictions are involved) and the type of incident (i.e., which functional agencies of the involved jurisdiction(s) are required). In the case of some multijurisdictional incidents, the designation of a single Incident Commander may be considered to promote greater unity of effort and efficiency.
Source: NIMS
Unified Command
Authority
Authority and responsibility for an Incident Commander to manage an incident or event comes in the form of a delegation of authority from the agency executive or administrator of the jurisdiction of occurrence or inherent in existing agency policies and procedures. When an incident/event spans multiple jurisdictions this responsibility belongs to the various jurisdictional and agency executives or administrators who set policy and are accountable to their jurisdictions or agencies. They must appropriately delegate to the Unified Commanders the authority to manage the incident. Given this authority, the Unified Commanders will then collectively develop one comprehensive set of incident objectives, and use them to develop strategies.
Advantages of Using Unified Command
The advantages of using Unified Command include:
the incident.
restrictions.
under a single Incident Action Plan.
Planning Process
Caption: Organizational chart showing that Command develops the overall incident objectives and strategy, approves resource orders and demobilization, and approves the IAP by signature. Operations assists with developing strategy, and identifies, assigns, and supervises the resources needed to accomplish the incident objectives. Planning provides status reports, manages the planning process, and produces the IAP. Logistics orders resources and develops the Transportation, Communications, and Medical Plans. Finance/Administration develops cost analyses, ensures that the IAP is within the financial limits established by the Incident Commander, develops contracts, and pays for the resources.
Incident Commander
Operations Section
Planning Section
Logistics Section
Finance/Admin Section
Command: Develops the overall incident objectives and strategy, approves resource orders and demobilization, and approves the IAP by signature.
Operations: Assists with developing strategy, and identifies, assigns, and supervises the resources needed to accomplish the incident objectives.
Planning: Provides status reports, manages the planning process, and produces the IAP.
Logistics: Orders resources and develops the Transportation, Communications, and Medical Plans.
Finance/Admin: Develops cost analyses, ensures that the IAP is within the financial limits established by the IC, develops contracts, and pays for the resources. Incident Commander
Operations Section
Planning Section
Logistics Section
Finance/Admin Section
Command: Develops the overall incident objectives and strategy, approves resource orders and demobilization, and approves the IAP by signature.
Operations: Assists with developing strategy, and identifies, assigns, and supervises the resources needed to accomplish the incident objectives.
Planning: Provides status reports, manages the planning process, and produces the IAP.
Logistics: Orders resources and develops the Transportation, Communications, and Medical Plans.
Finance/Admin: Develops cost analyses, ensures that the IAP is within the financial limits established by the IC, develops contracts, and pays for the resources.
Planning Process (Continued)
The Planning “P”
Source: draft NIMS document