Dave,
I understand the points you've been trying to make regarding the NIMS and the ongoing, almost complete disregard by many of it's most basic elements. But I think you're off the mark in one respect. A command post is a wonderful idea and doesn't take much more then a trunk lid, a pad, and a pen to set up. The problem is the period of time between when the first arriving unit gets to the scene and when everyone of import is gathered at the command post. I'll give you an example to illistrate my point...let's go with shots being fired inside a public school in a suburban locality.
The first arriving unit will typically be a police car. The officer will establish initial incident command and determine if there are any injuries, the last known location of the shooter(s), etc., etc. If injuries are being reported, the local BLS and ALS providers will then be toned out. During the period of time between when the duty crews are paged to when they arrive on scene they, obviously, are unable to be present at any command post established by PD. Now an evacuation route must be established and a local FD's pumper is going to be requested to set up a shield / corridor. Again the same problem applies; there will be a gap in time between the volunteer fire department getting toned out and when the duty chief arrives at any command post. These periods of time - often during the most critical stages of any event - are when some sort of protocol must be established to handle any messages that have to be relayed between law enforcement, EMS, emergency management, and school district, town/village/and/or city officials who may or may not already be on scene. Are you going to do it by radio? Or telephone? Or MDT? If by radio, who is going to do it? Through a dispatcher, who will then call the other dispatcher(s) down the line? Or should the tour commander on scene talk directly to the outside agencies he's requesting to respond?
The decisions made, after a careful study of the pros and cons of each method, will decide what techniques will be (or, I should say, are) used. You are 100% correct in that the scope of the event is irrelevent. A simple collision with a fluid spill on a roadway, resulting in it's full closure, will need the response on an FD. In this simple example, how does police tell fire to come up the wrong way on the highway to get there quicker and aviod sitting in the traffic backup created?
This is what I believe to be the weakest link that needs to be fixed in order to solve our so-called "interoperability" problem: how do we get vital information (such as, sticking with our active shooter example above, which uncleared buildings to stay away from on a campus) into the ears of those who need to hear it during that period in time before everybody getting to a CP. Some previous posters above have suggested the use of the national Call and Tac channels. I'm in support of that...to a point. (A) There are a insufficent number of VHF - low band channels to correspond to all of the VHF - High band, UHF, and 800 MHz equivalents, and (B) all too often none of the bands linked together - either at a console (as suggested above) or at fixed off-site locations. Investments in making this happen on a local level, will eventually lead to a point where, on a national scale, your existing radios will work coast-to-coast.
Once everyone's on location and represented at a joint command post, the radio end of the problem goes away.* The EMT raises his crew chief and provides his updates to him, who'll then relay - face-to-face - all pertainant information to the other leaders at the CP. Same for the firefighter, the school custodian, the deputy sheriff, and whomever else might be involved. MB, in his post above, is right. Too many municipal leaders haven't truly sat down to figure out the answer to the question of what is the quickest way to get info from those who have it to those who need it between the first bang (whether from a gun or between two fenders) and when the command post is up and running.
Thank you for your time,
SCANdal
* This discussion focused on inter-service communications. On scene intra-service (i.e.: PD to County Sheriff to State Police or a VHF FD and a UHF FD) communications struggles will remain throughout the duration of a given event barring any pre-existing common channels being pressed into service or a linking system being activated.
