Natural Disasters: Optimizing Officer and Team Performance

Natural disasters are experienced as chaotic and filled with uncertainty. In preparing for and responding to natural disasters, law enforcement officers work with numerous other first responders and community components to ensure safety, health and the continuity of community function. In addition to routine law enforcement, officers may be called on to assist with search and rescue, body recovery, and the distribution of essential supplies to survivors. Leaders of first responder organizations face unique challenges including high operational tempo, long hours, and diminished resources. Response and coordination is even more complex when units or teams are dispatched from outside local, state or federal agencies to assist in recovery operations. Usually, large scale disasters required the integration of local, state, federal and National Guard response teams.

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