monographs felike: An Incident Management Course or Crisis Management Online ...

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Police Departments and Sheriff's Offices across the country are incorporating crisis management questions in promotion exams. Table top exercises, oral boards, and written tests are used to evaluate a candidate's knowledge of the Incident Command System (ICS). Many crisis management online courses offer at least one incident management course that provides the information needed to excel in these promotion exams.

During a recent police department's sergeant promotion exam board in Northern California, applicants were required to conduct a written exam, an oral interview, and a tactical evaluation. The tactical evaluation consisted of a table-top type exercise wherein the applicants were given partial information of a critical event that had theoretically just occurred. The applicants were then told to talk about how they would handle the situation and position/ re-position officers on the table-top as they received updated information every five minutes. The primary focus of the evaluation was to determine the applicants' understanding of the ICS and how to implement its elements. Several applicants were visibly more prepared than others and during a debrief of the applicants, it was found that the prepared applicants had taken an incident management course from an online source.

Finding a crisis management course is becoming much easier. The ICS is part of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and is designed to prepare agencies for large operations involving numerous resources. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers over 40 online courses that provide instruction for most public agencies, including public works, fire, and medical departments. The number of courses available makes it easy for any hopeful to find the information needed to excel in interview processes that involve a tactical evaluation.

One incident management course that may be the most important for law enforcement promotion exams, as well as being useful for actual incidents, is ICS-300. ICS-300 is designed for mid-management supervisors in the operation of the incident command. The information contained in ICS-300 is what is primarily used in the larger situations in which police agencies regularly find themselves. Any sergeant hopeful would be well advised to take ICS-300. One of the reasons ICS-300 is so important is that the course provides a good understanding of the four main components of the ICS: operations, finance, logistics, and intelligence/planning. Along with these four elements of ICS, ICS-300 also teaches the importance of setting up a proper incident command (IC) so that all involved personnel know where to send and receive updated information as to the critical incident. A properly established Incident Command greatly reduces the amount of chaos inherent to these types of crisis.

Crisis management online courses are available for every aspect of public safety. Some courses are even mandated by state and federal agencies in order for the department to be eligible for grant money. Whether mandated or not, taking at least one incident management course not only prepares an individual for promotion opportunities, it better prepares the individual for handling any large scale situation in which they might find themselves. Anyone assigned as a first responder should understand the basic concepts of the incident command system and how to establish an incident command.

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Thursday, May 24, 2012

An Incident Management Course or Crisis Management Online ...

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