Page 145 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Fall 2014

enforcement personnel. RAMS was carefully developed of high-threat response, the application must be tai-
by members of the Philadelphia Police Department and lored for individual agencies based on local resources,
Philadelphia Fire Department. Other jurisdictions in the political climate, budget, and operational experience.
greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area have also devel- “Cookie cutter” or standardized courses and applica-
oped other escorted warm zone care programs for high- tions for high-threat operations often fail to account
threat incidents. for the differences among first responders that vary
widely jurisdiction to jurisdiction, region to region, state
Also at the June meeting, Ofer Lichtman, of the Ran- to state, etc. As such, the concepts and skills in these
cho Cucamonga, California Fire Department, briefed classes have to be ‘un-learned’ or ‘ignored’ because they
the Recue Task Force program that was implemented do not fit into the specific agency SOP or scope. Instead,
in his jurisdiction. Even though their RTF program is we recommend that you use the in-house training staff
similar to others and allows for non-TEMS fire depart- and operational experts in your agency to create an op-
ment personnel to be escorted by law enforcement into erational paradigm and training program that is specific
indirect threat/warm zones, several adaptations and les- to your agency.
sons learned by their personnel were presented.
That being said, there are many companies and training
The Bentonville, Arkansas Fire Department hosted a programs that state they teach TECC courses. Many of
week-long TECC training program in March that was these are very good with well-qualified instructors teach-
developed for various members of their city’s first re- ing the TECC guidelines as they are intended. However,
sponse community, as well as first care providers in over the past 2 years, with wider TECC implementa-
schools and corporate/business entities. This TECC tion, training officers from across the nation began to
training program was part of their Rescue Task Force express concern that vendors were incorrectly labeling
development process and included a Train-the-Trainer their training as “abiding by TECC principles.”
session that has enabled Bentonville to continue to train
their community. In an effort to assist end-users of TECC who are search-
ing for quality out-of-house training as well as vetting
Recognized Training Content for in house programs, the Committee has developed
The FY 2013 Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) two programs to denote some standards to TECC edu-
Funding Opportunity (FOA) under the FOA number cational programs: the C-TECC Principles of Guide-
DHS-13-GPD-067-000-01 under priority number 5, lines Instruction and the C-TECC Recognized Training
specifically encourages first responders to “apply fund- Center.
ing in support of efforts to improve mass casualty care
capabilities with a specific focus on providing immedi- The cornerstone of the C-TECC’s effort to distribute
ate emergency care to victims of mass casualty events, and educate first responders on the principles and appli-
including mass shootings.” This priority also places a cations of TECC is the commitment of the end-user and
goal on “improving coordination between law enforce- our educational partners to the abide by the C-TECC
ment, fire service, EMS systems, other first responder Principles of Guidelines Instruction. All educational
agencies, and local healthcare delivery and trauma sys- part ners recognized by the Committee pledge to abide
tems to improve victim triage, treatment and transport, by these principles as a condition of recognition and
and to ensure patients are distributed to appropriate continued educational relationship with the Committee.
levels of definitive emergency care.” This priority then
states that to achieve this capability, agencies should es- The C-TECC does not endorse any training organiza-
tablish protocols on the medical principles of TECC and tion or program but recognizes those educational part-
on conducting this training for first responders. ners who agree to use the guidelines, as written, without
change to the language, scope, or intent contained
As the growth and popularity of TECC has increased, within. Recognition by the Committee as adhering to
the Committee has received multiple requests for infor- the Principles of Guidelines Instruction in no way en-
mation regarding TECC training courses and/or official dorses quality of instruction but does demonstrate that
TECC certification. For those who are seeking to be the instructional content will be true to the language and
trained or operationalize TECC into their agency high- intent of the guidelines as pledged by the training entity.
threat standard operating procedures, it is important to
understand that there are currently no “official TECC The C-TECC Principles of Guidelines Instruction speaks
courses” or certification as a TECC provider or instruc- to both the student and to the educational/training en-
tor. The TECC guidelines are open source and nonpro- tity that is teaching material related to the guidelines.
prietary with the exception of the TECC logo. C-TECC It demonstrates that the educational entity, be it a per-
believes that, though there are universal “ principles” son or a company, during instructional or other TECC

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