The National Interagency Incident Management System

As stated earlier, the 9/11 attacks revealed the indomitable spirit of the US and awakened a sleeping giant, which was very reminiscent of the US response following the attacks by the Japanese on US forces in Hawaii. Both 9/11 and Pearl Harbor attacks galvanized the American people into action and caused the government to heavily invest resources to combat enemies of the US; the Axis enemies during World War II and “the terrorists”, wherever they may be located, following 9/11. One of the first NIST deficiencies to be corrected were the operational protocols for intra- and inter-agency communication. This, in part, has been addressed in the Incident Command System (ICS) since the purpose of ICS is to integrate operations between public safety entities at all levels of government.

After September 11, 2001, the Department of Homeland of Security was formed in response to the terrorist attacks. Out of the birth of the agencies formed, the National Incident Management System (NIMS) was created to allow clear allocation of resources and a systematic approach to emergency management. The system can be effective in many responses where many levels of government and response are imminent to respond to the disaster. Many of these agencies are emergency management, police, fire, health, and EMS from all levels of government. NIMS can be used on any type of incident and of any size or scope in nature.

The various local, state, and federal emergency management systems of the United States suffered a crude awakening in the decade of the 2000s. Systems expected to hold up were put to the test and failed to prepare for disaster, mitigate the damage, and, in some instances, actually hampered responses in life-or-death situations. Worse, all failings were highlighted in an age of global communication and mass media, on display first whether a man-made incident like September 11th attacks or natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina. The decade found the complacent government failing to maintain modern emergency management practices, stimulating began a series of doctrinal upgrades and training improvements. Yet, no matter the bureaucracy, writings, or money thrown at a problem, the first responder to the incident has and will continue to influence the outcome. While the individual responder stands as the most important part of

Supplies could be needed in one area, but without communication that area might not be able to reach out for those supplies. Communication amongst first responders is important for information sharing, so that information can flow between different jurisdictions and agencies. When looking at the efforts of first responders, communication is the one constant variable, which without communication all efforts would be in vain. (Newman & Clarke, 2008) The National Incident Management System (NIMS) places an emphasis on the importance of communication when dealing with response efforts. The National Incident Management System shows how having a unified command systems can benefit the response efforts to disaster. However, without proper and efficient communication, a unified command system cannot proceed efficiently.

The NIBRS collects data on each single incident and arrest within 22 offense categories made up of 46 specific crimes which is known as Group A offenses. NIBRS is short for National Incident-Based Reporting System. It is a reporting system that is used by law enforcement agencies in the United States for collecting and reporting data on crimes. Local, state and federal agencies generate NIBRS data from their records management systems. NIBRS came about in the late 1970s because the law enforcement community called for a thorough evaluation of the UCR program to recommend an expanded and enhanced data collection system to meet the needs of law enforcement in the 21st century. NIBRS was developed because over the years, the UCR data evolved and law enforcement expanded its capabilities to supple crime information. South Carolina law enforcement was the first division to use the National Incident-Based Reporting system to make sure it worked and that it worked correctly.

1. Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR), is a program that yearly reports, collects, and monitors statistics revolving the Part I crimes. There is a total of eight Part I crimes including rape, robbery, murder, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and lastly arson. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), operates the UCR program while working together with law enforcement. Law enforcement report their statistics to the FBI and from there they take that information and place it into the historical files.

Emergency services face vast difficulties in the operations field when handling emergency situations, whether it comes from handling a minor accident to a catastrophic catastrophy. Many of the difficulties do not come from the actual incident, but instead they arise from forming a rescue team containing different agencies and people. For the benefit off all individuals participating, it is imperative that there be a unified command structure in place to effectively coordinate and oversee the tasks that need to be accomplished. The need of a unified command was seen from the hardships faced in incidents, bringing forth the development of the Incident Command System that was designed to be used in an array of conditions, to bring all

Law enforcement agency starting in 1920’s realized the need to standardized criminal reporting. Every agency from privet to locale, county, and state had different criminal codes and various ways of track the frequency and categorizing crime. The end resulted was the creation of Uniform Crime Report (UCR), National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

In 1998, the National Incident-Base Reporting System (NIBRS) was created. The NIBRS is a reporting system that collects data on every crime in further detail than the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR Program). The NIBRS shows information about place of occurrence, weapon used, type and value of property damaged, and relationships between the perpetrator and victim. The UCR Program shows information of the summaries of crimes. Many thing that these programs are separate but the NIBRS is underlying of the UCR Program. These two systems differ from the National Crime Victimization Survey because with this surveys are mailed to households which allow more exposure to unreported

The National Incident Management System is a systematic guideline on how to effectively plan, mitigate, respond and recover, from significant incidences especially those that encompass diverse interest and involves all levels of governments. It works hand in hand with the National Response Framework, which provides structure for incident management while NIMS provide the guide for all departments and agencies at all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work flawlessly during incident management to reduce loss of life and property (U. S. Department of Homeland Security, 2008). The core aspect of the National Incident Management System during incident response is the Incident Command System (ICS),

Two specific areas of concern are noted in the majority of studies conducted. The first area of concern was that there was not a clear delineation of roles and responsibilities or organizational leaders (Haddow et al., 2014, p. 322). Since this event this has been an area that has shown considerable improvement. This has been accomplished through the use of NIMS and collaborative efforts of first responder leaders to craft an all hazards model of response. By doing both of these things, partner agencies are better able to fold into the rescue

National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) was originally designed as a summary system to collect only the most serious offense within an incident; the FBI UCR Program began using the NIBRS in 1989 to capture up to ten crime occurrences within an incident (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/nibrs-user-manual, 6). Through the NIBRS, LEAs report data on each offense and arrest within 23 offense categories made up of 49 specific crimes called Group A offenses the law enforcement collects administrative, offense, property, victim, offender, and arrestee information and an additional 10 Group B offense categories (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/nibrs-user-manual, 6). By design, LEAs generate NIBRS data as a by-product of their respective records management systems (RMS) (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/nibrs-user-manual, 6). Therefore, an LEA builds its system to suit its own individual needs, including all of the information required for administration and operation; then forwards only the data required by the NIBRS to participate in the FBI UCR Program (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/nibrs-user-manual, 6). As more agencies report via the NIBRS, the data collected will provide a clearer assessment of the nation’s crime experience (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/nibrs-user-manual, 6).

Today, the Incident Command System (ICS) is a major component of NIMS and is widely used in emergency management response. However, this was not always the case. According to David A. McEntire and Gregg Dawson, authors of the article, “The intergovernmental Context,” ICS was originally developed by the fire service in 1970. Its purpose was to assist in the command of wildfire events. It was unique because it standardized operations, yet offered flexibility so that it could be used on any number of events, regardless of size or type (McEntire & Dawson, 2007, p. 63).

Establishing the incident command system is first and foremost. The system establishes a common organizational structure that is conducive for different types of agencies as well as multiple jurisdictions to be able to effectively work together in response to the situation. The components of this system include the Incident Commander, who oversees all aspects of the disaster response, operations, planning, logistics and finance/administrative (Briggs & Twomey, 2003).

The security incident management policy of Blyth’s Books is quite comprehensive in the aspect of the detection and reporting of information security events. Detection and reporting of a security incident is vital for an organisation’s survival. If an organisation’s stakeholders and employees cannot detect when an incident has occurred or have detected one but cannot report owing to the fact that how and whom to report to is unknown, the remainder of the incident management procedure which is aimed at getting the organisation back on its feet information security wise cannot be put into process. No one can handle or respond to an incident they have no knowledge of. The security incident management policy of Blyth’s Books was pretty comprehensive in outlining what security incidents are and how they could be identified by those covered in the scope of the policy. A review of Norwegian organisations and institutions performed in 2005 where strategies for data security incidents were analysed demonstrated that statistics