Smaller agencies across the country are seeing more critical incidents, and many are borrowing lessons from big cities to plan them. Agencies of every size are seeing more high-risk, high-visibility events, from protests and vehicle threats to IEDs and active shooter events. Nobody can say these risks are a surprise anymore, which means agencies that skip planning may be asked why they weren’t ready.
Having a written plan is only the start. Preparedness is a cycle of planning, sharing, training, exercising, reviewing, and applying lessons learned. Here are some tips on what to do now, before the next critical incident happens in your area.
- Make Sure Your Emergency Plan Gets Read, Not Just Written
Agencies often write solid plans that few people read fully. Consider an agency that puts together a 300-page plan for a major event. Chances are, most people will read only the section that applies to them. But a critical incident rarely unfolds the way it’s planned for. Roles can change, and teams have to coordinate far more closely, so responders should take the time to learn how their assignment fits into the larger picture. Leaders need to know the plan, too. When they don’t, it shows quickly, and the people in their command lose confidence.
Supervisors are the ones who should be making sure their people know the plan before the incident starts. For a scheduled event, that can be a briefing about an hour ahead, with time for questions. But many incidents come with no warning, so the same conversation needs to happen well before the day it’s needed — in shift briefings, roll calls, and training sessions. Every person should be able to say what their role is, where they go, and how they get out if conditions change.
- Share the Plan with Every Partner Agency
In 2013, law enforcement officers responded to an active shooter at the Washington Navy Yard, ready to go in. But the Navy Yard was carrying out its own emergency response plan, which meant locking down the gates. As officers tried to get in, the Navy Yard’s lockdown procedures were taking effect, and the two plans were in conflict.
When a major event happens, agencies should have the assurance that help is on the way. But even welcome help can cause setbacks when agencies arrive without a shared plan. Share plans with supporting jurisdictions and disciplines, then test them together so conflicts surface before the incident does.
- Build Relationships Before the Bad Day
The people who receive your plan should be people you know. Many leaders have a drawer full of business cards from people they couldn’t pick out of a room. Sitting down over coffee or a meal is a better way to get to know those partners and see how their agencies approach the job. For example, in Orange County, California, the fire chief and the sheriff, along with their executive staff, met for lunch every six months, sometimes without discussing any mission at all.
Those relationships can make all the difference, and on the day of a crisis, a phone call to someone you know can move faster than any formal request. On Jan. 6, 2021, as officers fought protestors on the Capitol’s West Front, the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police began calling other law enforcement leaders in the area. Each asked the same two questions: How many, and where? Seventeen agencies sent a total of 1,700 officers, without waiting for an emergency declaration.
- Train the Way You’ll Respond
Start with the scenarios your people fear most. Have frontline staff name them, study incidents from other places, and then practice your response with tabletop exercises and real-world drills that feel as authentic as possible. In Boston, for example, first responders trained with volunteer “victims” who were war veterans with amputated legs, so their personnel could practice tourniquets before facing that sight in a real attack.
Train across disciplines, too. In the Mumbai terror attacks of November, 2008, police, fire, and bomb technicians debated who should act first at a burning hotel. Putting firefighters and paramedics though tactical training settles those questions ahead of time, and most large fire agencies now issue ballistic gear and practice going in alongside law enforcement.
Limited staff and budgets are real challenges, but they don’t have to stop the work. Try a regional exercise where every agency sends a couple of officers, ask retirees to come back as role players and add short, frequent drills on your own shifts. Those short, frequent drills paid off at a large training exercise in Washington, D.C. Police teams responding to a simulated active shooter performed so well that the trainer asked how they had prepared. The answer was a lieutenant who bought blue guns and, a couple of times a month, pulled midnight-shift officers off the road to run drills in an abandoned school. The muscle memory those drills build is what people rely on in a crisis, and it only exists if leaders make the time for it.
- Prepare People to Make Decisions When the Plan Breaks
In 2013, the Boston Marathon security plan consisted of 146 pages and even included an alternate finish line in case a fire closed part of the course. But it did not anticipate a bombing that required a 22-block crime scene. When disaster struck in the form of two pressure-cooker bombs, the team set the plan aside, asked what challenge was in front of them, and built a new one on the spot.
That only works with people who are trusted to use judgment, and that trust has to be built before the incident. No policy can cover every situation, so are you willing to trust your people to make the call when the policy doesn’t fit? They should expect to be asked about it later, and leaders should look at intent. Was the goal to save lives and stop a greater threat? If so, back your people.
- Close the Loop on After-Action Reports
Many agencies write a comprehensive after-action report and never open it again. An annual review is a good habit that gets your agency looking back at what worked and what didn’t, and whether the improvement plan was carried out. Some leaders go further. After the Navy Yard shooting, the D.C. police chief called for an after-action review right away, then met weekly to track the corrective action plan, from weapons to breaching equipment to getting military installation streets into dispatch systems. She stayed on it until every recommendation was addressed. Checking back in on a regular schedule is one way to keep returning to an incident and learning from it.
Two problems can undermine even a well-tracked report. The first is a report that has been cleaned up. After a major incident, the responders who were there identify what should change, and some of those fixes carry a price tag. When they are cut from the final report because the money isn’t there, the report loses credibility. Firefighters and officers alike can tell when a report has been sanitized, so leave every finding in, even the ones that can’t be funded right away.
The second is a review that turns into a blame session. Leaders set the tone by owning their own mistakes and saying so plainly, which keeps the conversation on what the agency learned, what it will change, and what it won’t or can’t. Handled that way, the report becomes a working document instead of yet another file on a shelf.
- Build a Culture Where People Can Speak Up
When an incident happens elsewhere, someone in your agency should feel free to ask, “Are we ready for this?” That only works when leaders make it easy. It’s important to answer the email or return the call, even when it takes time, and the answer isn’t the one the person hoped for. Word gets around when a chief responds.
Also, listen to the people who stir the pot. They often have a couple of good points, and the strongest ones may provide a fresh look at something a leader can’t see from their own position. Anyone can step up when something isn’t going right, whatever their rank. An agency that welcomes suggestions from every level gives its preparedness cycle a steady supply of ideas to work with.
Start Building Readiness Before the Next Incident
No agency can predict the next critical incident, but it can decide how much of the work is done before it arrives. Better communication doesn’t require a new program or major investment. It starts with leaders making a deliberate effort to communicate clearly and consistently with their teams, their partners, and the people they serve, before, during and after an incident.
- Webinars
