Excerpted from: ERRI EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT-EmergencyNet NEWS Service Friday, September 5, 1997 Vol. 1-248
Special to EmergencyNet News - 09/05/97
PUBLIC SAFETY AND THE
"COMBAT ENVIRONMENT"
By: James P. Denney -
Managed Response
Captain, Los Angeles City Fire Dept., (Retired)
The Academic American Encyclopedia defines war as: the conditions that exist when a group - generally, a recognized state or nation but often a political, social, or economic faction within a recognized political group - feels its vital interest are at stake and seeks to impose its beliefs or control on a rival group through the use of overt force. Total war is a war that is directed against and involves not only rival military combatants but also the resources - including the noncombatant population - of the societies involved. Limited wars are those wars in which the daily life of most of the populations that are part of the warring societies is generally unaffected by the condition of violence that exist between the combatants.
In the case of the United States, a limited war exists. Our limited war is crime based, and the violence associated with crime is covered with a thin sheath of rationality and societal acceptance (one expects criminals to be violent). Usually, the violence is a secondary act that is instrumental to or a by-product of criminal activity, such as take-over style bank robberies where the immediate use of violence places the perpetrators in control or the use of violence in managing the narcotic enterprise.
There is a rationale to certain criminal acts of violence, when conducted within a particular societal frame-work or culture. In other words, it is rational to assume bank robbers would use weapons and violence in order to achieve a successful robbery and elude the police or for drug dealers to defend and maintain their market share of the user population.
Unfortunately, though perfectly capable of handling routine incidents where violent acts have been committed, local fire and law enforcement organizations are not fully prepared for the growing effectiveness of small unit tactics that employ significant violence during the initiation of criminal activity, particularly when the perpetrators have the ability to bring more fire-power to bear than the responding agency.
Working in the modern emergency services has been likened to working in a limited war environment where resources respond into combat zones for the purpose of neutralizing the aggressor through capture or over-riding force, retrieval of the wounded and evacuation of the vulnerable. Providers are often heard referring to particular incidents as being "like a war zone," and their experience analogous to the conditions of war they see on the nightly news. In larger metropolitan areas, "Balkanization" has occurred on a block-by-block basis with warring factions constantly battling for territorial dominance.
An increasingly violent population, coupled with a rise in criminal violence and easily obtainable modern weaponry, have combined to present emergency service workers with conditions usually reserved for veteran combatants. Fully automatic military style weapons and explosive devices for example, are not uncommon in the field today and may be encountered by a responding emergency service organization unprepared to manage the potential impact of these weapons.
The fire service, for example, espouses a number of concepts. One of which is the "All Hazards" approach to emergency management. The all hazard approach implies that a system is designed to cope with a broad range of emergency needs including war or low level armed incursion.
The problem is that events such as war or low level incursion have different management requirements than other disasters. Mission statements associated with fire and police agencies generally include the terms "to protect and serve," or "to save lives and protect property." Local agencies may not understand that a low level armed conflict can have the capacity to disrupt infrastructure at the local or regional level and has the potential to cause significant losses in terms of life. These events are different than an earthquake, fire or flood, and may far exceed their capability. In addition, incident management systems that work well under routine operations may not be expansive enough to accommodate all resources that may be brought to bare in a given circumstance.
Current strategic thinking by the federal government assumes that there is potential for a low level incursion into North America and that should this occur, police and fire services would respond initially believing that the damage caused, or sightings observed, are related to accidental, criminal or terrorist activity and has or will result in human injury and property damage. The immediate response focuses on the safety of life and property, a role that is handled competently and traditionally by public safety agencies nation-wide, in the context of singular events rather than a continuous enterprise.
An emergency service organization may find itself paralyzed when faced with a continuous a-historic, uncontrolled, violence based environment that is intentionally prolonged by the aggressors, it must be understood that the management, personnel, resource and design capability of the organization will be exceeded. It is important that public safety organizations realize that they alone are not capable of meeting the requirements of every emergency that occurs and mechanisms must be in place to rapidly access external sources such as FEMA, the National Guard, and the DoD.
Local and regional public safety agency mutual aid agreements should include a military component. Public safety providers must consider coordinating their training and response efforts with state and national military organizations and other federal law enforcement agencies for the management of low level armed conflict, including chemical and biological threats, within their geopolitical boundaries.
(c) Copyright, EmergencyNet NEWS Service, and the author, 1997. All Rights Reserved. Redistribution without permission is prohibited by law.
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