Policy
Although emergency situations vary in nature and scope, they have common police objectives:
- Life safety - protection of life and injury reduction
- Preservation of property and the environment
- Incident stabilization - restoration of order
- Proper notification of appropriate authorities
- Incident command responsibility
- Collection and preservation of evidence
- Proper recording of all actions and reporting
The ranking officer or supervisor at the scene of any emergency is the on-scene Incident Commander until relieved of this responsibility by a higher authority. At the scene of multi-agency or multi-department responses, the ranking Fire Department officer will most often be the on-scene Incident Commander, with police functions being traffic control, security and evacuation assistance, in accordance with the City’s Emergency Operations Plan, Annex F.
Definitions
Refer to the Commonly Used Terms page for general definitions.
- Incident Commander:
The Incident Commander (IC) is the first officer or supervisor to arrive on the scene of a call for service where multiple units, scenes, or assisting agencies are dispatched. The Incident Commander has overall command of the incident, until properly relieved by a supervisor of higher rank if necessary, and will be based at the incident command post. The priorities of the Incident Commander include:
- Assess incident priorities.
- Determine strategic goals and tactical objectives, not related to the operations of SWAT or ESU personnel.
- Identify a staging area, if needed.
- Develop and implement incident action plan.
- Develop appropriate incident management structure.
- Assess resource needs.
- Coordinate overall on-scene emergency activities.
- Authorize information to be released to the media.