Incident System Research Articles

Implementation and effectiveness of the National Incident Management System's Incident Command System in law enforcement since 2003.

This paper investigates the use of the National Incident Management System (NIMS)'s Incident Command System (ICS) in law enforcement since Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 was issued in 2003. It attempts to answer the following questions: (a) To what degree has law enforcement adopted the NIMS style ICS?; (b) To what degree has the NIMS/ICS framework been applicable to law enforcement?; and (c) Is the NIMS style ICS effective in the law enforcement response environment? The research includes a review of relevant case studies and literature and also includes the analysis of a survey instrument sent to 1,220 current and former law enforcement practitioners across the United States. The survey includes both open- and closed-ended questions. The data from closed-ended questions were compiled and displayed. Data from open-ended questions were grouped thematically. Responses were then assessed and compared with information gleaned from the literature review. Results indicate the system has been widely adopted by law enforcement, and its use is applicable and effective in some law enforcement responses. Its use in the highly chaotic initial phase of incidents, however, remains an open question.

Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Mosquito Control Incident Response Team: An Exercise in Using the National Incident Management System's Incident Command System for Disaster Response.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) uses a Mosquito Control Incident Response Team (MCIRT) to respond to natural disasters and mosquito borne-disease threats. Since 2001, this team has responded to 9 different events and is responsible for organizing treatment to more than 15 million acres in Florida using wide-area adulticide applications. The MCIRT implements the Incident Command Structure (ICS) to coordinate response efforts because it enables FDACS to quickly deploy staff to the devastated areas, conduct necessary mosquito surveillance, communicate with multiple agencies, and direct mosquito control measures. It also allows for easier transfer of leadership, cross-training of employees, and postevent evaluation.

Quality Evaluation Method for Variable Speed Limit Systems

Advanced traffic management has used variable speed limit (VSL) systems to control traffic on freeways and urban arterial roads. A VSL system is expected to detect incidents and take measures to carry out any or all of the following: avoid accidents, postpone or alleviate congestion by providing warning messages, and harmonize traffic by reducing speed differences between vehicles. Methods for assessing two features of VSL systems, namely, incident detection and warning efficiency, are presented in this paper. The algorithm for warnings relies on incident detection. Therefore, the quality of the system's incident detection and warning effects need to be assessed separately. For the purpose of evaluating incident detection, the traffic state was reconstructed, discretized, and compared with the message signs of the VSL. The warning efficiency of the system was assessed by generating virtual vehicle trajectories and determining whether a driver experienced adequate warning. Scenarios for message signs and their influence on traffic safety were identified according to the distance of the warning from the tail of the congestion. Weightings for detections and missed detections based on the different scenarios were developed. A quality evaluation method was then used to grade the levels of the system in their incident detection and warning efficiency. The presented method was tested for the VSL system on Autobahn A99 near Munich, Germany.

Factors in Building an Incident Command Organization for the Largest Oil Spill in U.S. History

ABSTRACT The Deepwater Horizon MC 255 Oil Spill (DWH) was the largest oil spill in U.S. history, with over 255 million gallons of oil estimated released into the environment. The response to the spill was massive involving tens of thousands of resources on the ground, on the water, under the sea and in the air. The National Incident Management System's Incident Command System (ICS) was the command and control structure used to manage these resources. In the words of a nationally recognized ICS expert, Mr. Charles Mills, President of Emergency Management Systems Incorporated, “This was the most complex incident managed with ICS in the history of its use.”1 This paper focuses on the ICS organization built for the DWH incident to provide some useful information to planners and emergency preparedness professionals to use in their pollution response contingency plans and preparedness programs. This paper will focus on the State of Louisiana Incident Command Post (ICP). Due to the size of the spill and the resp...