Page 107 - JSOM Summer 2020

TABLE 1 National Incident Management System, Incident scope of this particular event, in terms of land mass covered,
Command System, and National Response Framework Glossary 29,30 number of participants involved, and the anticipated volatility
Term Description and threat of violence, was unprecedented in Gainesville. Al-
A set of principles that provides a systematic, though a Unified Command in response to such a large event
proactive approach guiding government had never been established in Gainesville before this event, ex-
agencies at all levels, nongovernmental periences and relationships served as a basic platform for the
National Incident organizations, and the private sector to
Management System work seamlessly to prevent, protect against, upcoming preparations and response.
(NIMS) respond to, recover from, and mitigate the
effects of incidents, regardless of cause, size, The head of the Mobile Field Force/Special Weapons and
location, or complexity, to reduce the loss of Tactics (SWAT) contingency of the GPD contacted the po-
life or property and harm to the environment lice department at the University of California, Berkeley (UC
A standardized approach to the command, Berkeley), for its assistance, because UC Berkeley had over-
control, and coordination of on-scene seen numerous protests, including incidents attended by the
incident management that provides a
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common hierarchy within which personnel antifascist movement. The UC Berkeley police department’s
Incident Command from multiple organizations can be effective. assistance proved to be invaluable for advance preparations.
System (ICS) ICS specifies an organizational structure for To gain more experience, the Gainesville mobile field team
incident management that integrates and commander embedded with the UC Berkeley team during a
coordinates a combination of procedures,
personnel, equipment, facilities, and protest in California before the Gainesville event. In turn, a
communications. representative from UC Berkeley came to Gainesville to assist
A guide, based on the principles of NIMS, with preparations, including teaching tactics and countermea-
that details the specific authorities and sures his team had successfully used in earlier protests.
National Response
Framework (NRF) best practices the nation should use in
the response to all types of disasters and With Unified Command in place, implementation of our
emergencies all-hazards plan allowed for rapid preparation and resource
The individual responsible for on-scene management, given the anticipated geographic and population
incident activities, including developing
incident objectives and ordering and size. Joint preparatory meetings were held for all local, state,
Incident commander
releasing resources. The incident commander and federal law enforcement agencies; EMS agencies (GFR
has overall authority and responsibility for and ACFR); hazardous materials support; EMS physicians;
conducting incident operations. and key leaders from receiving hospitals. This required sharing
A strategy that enables multiple sensitive intelligence between law enforcement and medical
organizations to perform the functions response organizations—an uncommon practice for law en-
of the incident commander jointly. Each
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participating partner maintains authority, forcement but a measure felt to be necessary and valuable by
responsibility, and accountability for its the Unified Command and relevant healthcare providers. The
Unified Command
personnel and other resources while jointly planning stages initially involved discussions and table-top ex-
managing and directing incident activities ercises by senior members of stakeholder agencies and even-
through the establishment of a common set
of incident objectives, strategies, and a single tually evolved into exercise rehearsals. For the confidentiality
incident action plan. of future responses, specifics will not be discussed but general
The concept that each individual only considerations will be mentioned.
Unity of command
reports to one person
A document that contains the incident Medical preparations began with meetings between local
Incident action plan objectives the incident commander or emergency management, and GFR and ACFR leadership to
(IAP) Unified Command establishes and addresses discuss geographic layout and strategic positioning of ambu-
tactics for the planned operational period lance staging areas, decontamination zones, and rescue task
A set number of resources of the same type force (RTF) staging areas (Figure 1). (Note: All local law en-
that have an established minimum number forcement agencies include individual first aid kits and tour-
of personnel, common communications, and
Strike team niquets as standard issue and regularly train their officers to
a leader. In the law enforcement community,
strike teams are referred to as resource maintain a minimum level of proficiency.) GFR formed an
teams. RTF and hazardous materials decontamination strike team.
Any combination of resources of different Task forces with RTF capabilities were established on the basis
Task force kinds and/or types assembled to support a of the NIMS framework. An RTF is a medical-care team ca-
specific mission or operational need
pable of entering areas of potential but not immediate threats
(i.e., warm zones) under dedicated law enforcement protec-
fire-based, nontransport emergency medical services (EMS) tion. These teams locate victims, provide limited but life-
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agency that has hazardous materials and tactical medicine sustaining treatments under Tactical Emergency Casualty Care
support. ACFR is an urban, advanced life support, fire-based, (TECC) guidelines, and extricate victims to the cold zone for
transport EMS agency with 12 full-time ambulances. ACFR more standard medical care. For this event, a fleet of ACFR
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possesses the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity ambulances was staged offsite, prepared to rapidly transport
in Alachua County, making it the sole preferred, prehospital patients from the cold zone to definitive care (Figure 2). Each
transport provider in Alachua County. RTF team was independent from the medical contingent em-
bedded in the SWAT team, a measure that follows Tactical
The concept of Unified Command is not novel to Gainesville; Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) guidelines. Although RTF
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there are numerous large sporting events, speakers, and con- teams exist in our community for potential active shooter
cert performances that require joint leadership among UFPD, scenarios, the actual implementation and deployment of RTF
ACSO, GPD, and ACFR. However, the anticipated size and teams was a new practice for our community (Figure 3).

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