Multiagency Emergency Response Paper

Multi-agency Emergency Response
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Multi-agency Emergency Response
Law enforcement agencies respond to emergencies routinely and often work together across different jurisdictions and share information while at it. Emergency response requires effective communication systems that allow first responders, including law enforcement officers and emergency medical technicians, to communicate and share information as they receive it on the ground. Therefore, emergency response and communication interoperability are necessary for law enforcement and other emergency response agencies to respond without communication issues. According to Kapucu et al. (2017), communication interoperability refers to the ability of emergency response agencies to talk using communication systems within and between agencies. This facilitates the effectiveness of emergency response agencies in their response and recovery efforts to save lives. In the absence of this interoperability, communication between law enforcement and other response agencies fails. Kapucu et al. (2017) indicate that lives have been lost, such as during the 911 attack, because the radio communication devices used by law enforcement agencies and other first responders were not interoperable. It is important to promote communication interoperability to ensure that different agencies have effective emergency communication. The information must be passed along a chain of command in other agencies and across various jurisdictions when lives are at risk and time is of the essence. As the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) (2021) indicates, incident commanders from law enforcement and other emergency response agencies rely on emergency response and communication interoperability to assess situations and respond using appropriate approaches. Easy and quick multi-agency communication between law enforcement agencies is necessary as it allows responders to manage disasters without risking their lives or those of the public.
Multi-agency interoperability relies on interoperable system-wide communication systems to promote cooperation in emergency response. Successful multi-agency interoperability cannot be achieved without radios, videos, and computers. According to NIJ (2021), law enforcement agencies rely on voice, video, and data communications to assess emergencies and deploy appropriate responses. Voice, video, and data communications are facilitated using radios, videos, and computers. Functional radio transmission is an important communication element that enables multi-agency interoperability. When first responders cannot send messages on their radio, they cannot share important audio information that can be used to facilitate multi-agency interoperability (NIJ, 2021). Another communication element that is critical to successful multi-agency interoperability is non-interference. As the CSIA (n.d.) reveals, multi-agency interoperability is sometimes hinder...