Northern Illinois Police Alarm System (NIPAS) has a 4 pronged mission: First, it provides for an orderly
move-up of police resources in a similar fashion to MABAS. "Car Plans" are used to determine which
departments provide personnel to a specified incident just like MABAS Box Cards. Second, NIPAS
provides a "Mobile Field Force" (MFF) used to provide trained officers for riot and crowd control as well
as other situations. Thirdly, NIPAS provides a pool of special resources available to its members such as
interpreters, surveillance equipment and other specialized items that individual departments may need
occasionally and another department may have.
Most visible of the NIPAS operations is the Emergency Services Team (EST). EST is a highly trained
SWAT type team that can provide hostage rescue and negotiation, entry units and marksmen.
Members in NIPAS include dozens of suburban police departments all over the Chicago area, mostly in the
north, northwest and west suburbs. [b]Communications for NIPAS operations, except for EST and MFF is
provided by the local departments or handled by existing channels such as ISPERN (155.475) or IREACH
(155.055).[/b]