Lesson 4 - Major incidents Flashcards
Define Major Incidents?
“An event or situation with a range of serious consequences which requires special arrangements to be implemented by one or more emergency responder agencies”
Who can declare a major incident?
Police officer of any rank.
What is a major incident for one emergency service, might not be one for the police. Police will still respond and send a Police Incident Officer (PIO to coordinate a response in support of whichever agency has declared a major incident.
What is the role of the police in a major incident?
To coordinate the activities of responding agencies
What is an Operationally Challenging Incident?
Any incident which the prevailing circumstances has the potential to compromise the ability of the force to provide an appropriate and professional response without the use of specialist support and/or the redeployment of additional resources from other duties.
A major incident, if called by police will by definition also be an Operationally Challenging Incident for the Police. However, an Operationally challenging incident will not necessarily be a major incident.
Very few operationally challenging incidents will meet the definition of a Major Incident.
What should the Initial Actions of a First Responder be in relation to a Major, Critical or Operationally Challenging Incident?
- Decide if it is a Major Incident and declare it following the METHANE principle.
- Preserve life
- Prevented escalation
- Ensure the safety of all
- Preservation of the scene - secure evidence
- Minimise disruption to community
- Secure/ detain offenders
- Ensure due process of law
- Return to normality
Not all of these will be required in every situation and after preservation of life they are not in order of importance.
What is a PIO?
Police incident officer. This is the first officer at the locus who is in charge of the incident. This COULD BE YOU until charge is handed over the another officers.
What is the command structure?
Bronze - Operational commander (officer in charge at the scene)
Silver - Tactical commander (officer operating remotely to facilitate and support the needs of the Bronze commander)
Gold - Strategic commander (a senior officer with an overview of the entire incident)
Not every major incident will require all three levels of command support. This structure may also be used for operationally challenging incidents that have not yet been declared a major incident.
Major incidents are declared using the METHANE principle, what does this stand for?
- Major incident declared?
- Exact location
- Type of incident
- Hazards Present, potential or suspected?
- Access / Rendezvous Point (RVP)
- Number, type, severity of casualties?
- Emergency services present and those required?
What is the Forward Control Point?
it should be within the outer cordon, but near enough to the inner cordon to assist maintaining command and control, but not close enough to be dangerous or a hinderance.
Usually the first police vehicle to arrive at the scene will be set up close to the incident site. Should be recognisable by use of blue lights.
What is the Rendezvous point (RVP)/ Marshalling area.
Where the resources attending book in. This allows the PIO to know who is there and what support is available.
Sometimes the RVP and the marshalling area. But sometimes after going to the RVP vehicles are sent to the marshalling area to await deployment.
Logging of a major incident?
Start on your mobile devise, then a tri-service or a major incident log should be used as soon as possible.
What are Police Scotland’s Priorities in relation to sieges?
To contain, isolate evacuate and negotiate
What is a critical incident?
“Any incident where the effectiveness of the police response is likely to have a significant impact on the confidence of the victim, their family and or the community”
E.g. a death of a person in Police Custody, or a hate crime targeting a vulnerable group.
What criteria should you use when deciding if something is a critical incident?
Effectiveness
