Ok gang, this is an important one, and I am hoping that any company reps that might read this, actually pay attention. Here at Feral Jundi, I have been talking my head off about the importance of the Incident Command System, and why we should be getting ICS smart. Well this little deal below is one reason, in my list of reasons for going this route. If a company is used in a disaster zone or some national security deal, and they are not up to speed on NIMS, then they will certainly be behind the power curve. And seeing how all the federal, state, and local groups have been given the orders of ‘one mission, one team, one fight’ since 2004, we need to catch up in the private industry if we want to integrate well into that effort.
In the Fire Services, all federal/state/local/private industry groups were required to be up to speed on Incident Command. It is actually part of the fire refresher training each year. But notice how I tacked on ‘private industry’, because fire contractors all had to be able to integrate well on an incident. They had to have radios, the fire equipment, a red card stating that they were qualified, and they needed to know who and what an Incident Commander was on a fire. ICS was a necessary bit of knowledge, if a contractor wanted to play with others on fires.
Even if your company does not take the time to learn this stuff or train it’s employees, you as the security specialist could definitely take it upon yourself to learn. If you have questions about Incident Command and how it works, just do a Google or Feral Jundi Search. Or you could just ask me and I will be more than happy to fill in the blanks. I also think the attacks in Mumbai, are certainly an indicator that we must get organized when it comes to managing chaotic environments. During that attack, there was no Incident Management and really no leadership bringing everyone under such a system. The result was chaos and casualties, with extreme blame on the government for not doing enough to deal with such a thing. Things to think about…-Matt
——————————————————————
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge Approves National Incident Management System (NIMS)
For Immediate Release
Press Office
Contact: 202-282-8010
March 1, 2004
U. S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge today announced approval of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) (PDF, 152 pages – 7.6MB) the Nation’s first standardized management plan that creates a unified structure for Federal, state, and local lines of government for incident response. “NIMS gives all of our Nation’s responders the same framework for incident management and fully puts into practice the concept of, ‘One mission, one team, one fight,'” Ridge said.