NCJ Number
198524
Date Published
August 2002
Length
82 pages
Annotation
These guidelines are intended to provide America's response community with a baseline understanding of the training necessary to respond safely and effectively to an act of terrorism that involves the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Abstract
Although these guidelines are not official regulations, they have been written in concert with existing codes and standards of agencies whose primary responsibility is planning for and responding to emergency situations. The first category of guidelines pertains to "awareness level." They address training requirements for law enforcement personnel who are likely to witness or discover an event that involves the terrorist/criminal use of WMD or who may be sent to initially investigate the report of such an incident. Awareness-level guidelines are also provided for fire service, emergency medical services, emergency management, and public works. The next category of guidelines pertain to "performance level." This level is divided into two parts, with a separate set of training guidelines for each part. The training guidelines for the law enforcement officer at the performance level focus on officers who will likely be responding to the scene of a hazardous material event or a potential terrorist criminal use of WMD. These officers will conduct on-scene operations within the "warm zone" and/or the "hot zone" (if properly trained and equipped) that has been set up on the scene of a WMD or hazardous materials event to control and close out the incident. It is expected that those officers trained for Performance Level A will work in the warm zone and cold zone and support those officers working in the hot zone. Officers trained for Performance Level B will work in the hot zone and in the other zones established at the incident scene as needed. Guidelines are also provided for the other emergency responders specified in the previous guidelines category. "Planning and Management Level" guidelines address training requirements for law enforcement officials who are expected to be part of the leadership and management team that likely will respond to an event that involves the terrorist/criminal use of WMD. Other guidelines in this category are specified for the other types of emergency responders. Appended list of relevant training courses and a glossary