Northern Exposure
protect a potential crime scene. In addition to other physical indicators, fire and rescue services may be able to assist in determining the extent of the scene. One can then imagine that, as people travel from the centre out towards the outer cordon, there are a series of key process considerations to make. All persons leaving the scene must pass through the following three stages: – Decontamination: Is it required in this case?, Can an improvised method (simple washing or showering) serve well enough, or is a more formal set-up required, perhaps due to non-ambulant casualties? Will there be a requirement for a fully deployed mass decontamination set-up? – Medical assessment: What are the immediate triage results in order to preserve life and stabilise the scene? Part of this also requires tagging those who will require longer-term monitoring and analysis. This should include first responders and other emergency services that attend the scene, who may have physical and psychological needs or impacts following the incident. – Police activity: The only way to prevent future attacks or incidents is to ensure that there is a swift response to bring those responsible to justice. There are two processes though: an initial rapid reporting to inform intelligence, which is not necessarily part of the investigation but rather a function of preventing other attacks that may be imminent. The longer-term work includes evidential and forensic processing of the scene, which can be very time consuming.
Once life-saving activity is completed, the subsequent inner-cordon activity must be in accordance with the senior investigating officer’s forensic strategy. The overall management of a scene should include nine key tasks: – Command and control: This is always thrown out by people as an important part of a capability, but all too often it is seen merely as communications equipment and software. C2 is about attitudes and connections between different agencies. With the different levels of command, agencies and moving parts, it is of foremost importance that people take the time to get to know each other beyond just exercising.
– Mobilisation: What units are needed, what level of response, what other agencies?
– Arrival at scene: Who arrived first, and how will other units be received and briefed?
– Scene assessment: Following the initial gathering of information, a full assessment of the scene is needed. This might be a small area and take minutes, or it might cover Kms and huge resources. This is the unfortunately dynamic aspect of CBRN incidents and is exaggerated if a slow initial response allows contamination to spread beyond the known bounds of the incident. This might be unavoidable though if the incident is discovered post-functioning. – Scene management: As the area may vary, so might the time that the scene needs to be managed for. The UK government has put serious investment into supporting the management of the scene. This includes deployable barrier systems and tannoys/messaging boards produced by Cobham. These can act as a much needed force multiplier for incidents that can soak up man power rapidly in maintaining cordons and control.
– Deliberate reconnaissance: Much more detailed than the scene assessment, this involves actually establishing greater clarity about the nature of the incident. – Rescue and Triage: Historically a really concerning issue but the development of New Dimensions HAZMAT /CBRN DIM teams and mass decontamination by Fire Services and the Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART) by the NHS has really made inroads to making this far more manageable. Sadly, it just isn’t practical to maintain resources to give the perfect response to every catastrophic risk, but the national nature of the development of all three services capabilities means there is high interoperability and ability for mutual support.
– Decontamination: From simple disrobing and washing through to technical decontamination of casualties, this has to be set up carefully and well managed or it can become a hindrance and a risk rather than an aid. It’s also a vital part of the management of the public because it’s a key part of the
reassurance process that lets them know they will be safe and that they have been dealt with professionally. Survivor management. – Recovery: This is also a key to reassuring the public and needs a professional hand-over of the scene to the appropriate agencies for the clean-up. It needs the local authorities, environmental agencies and others to be running up plans before the handover, something they can only do if they are being briefed from the start of the incident.
All of these tasks are made much easier and professional by the incredible work that has been done over the last decade in building up the UK capability in this area, and the Police National CBRN Centre has been instrumental in the generation of appropriate training for either specialist CBRN posts or familiarisation for other disciplines such as disaster victim identification and forensics. We can also draw on the services now of CBRN TAC advisors supporting the BRONZE commander. Working through the chain of command and using the reach back to the Police National CBRN centre, other national assets can be called on, such as specialist scientific response teams, modelling of plumes, mutual support and reinforcements – whatever is needed to manage the scene. Ultimately, the most incredible thing about CBRN response in the UK is that you aren’t alone. More so perhaps than in any other element of policing, there is a clear concept of national mutual support. Looking ahead for response in Northern Ireland, it’s important that we maintain the concept of all-hazards response. A single approach for dealing with any chemical response, be it drugs, explosive lab or CBRN, is not only more efficient use of resources, it actually enhances our interoperability with other services because we don’t think in a stove- piped fashion. It justifies to the taxpayer and HM Treasury the maintenance of specialist resources. Most important of all though, it is vital for the provision of capability to the public for PSNI, as a force separated by water from many of the other supporting resources – although the approach is a sensible one to take for other mainland forces.
CBRNe South America 2012, 13-14 March, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. More information on
www.icbrnevents.com 46 CBRNe WORLD February 2012
www.cbrneworld.com
CBRNeWORLD
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