This thesis sought to understand reasons for noncompliant respondents and ineffective leadership in the National Incident Management System (NIMS) by Texas public safety training officers. Research has been conducted on the policies and their implications for NIMS, organizational culture and its impact on NIMS, and the hierarchy network of the Incident Command System (ICS). However, research evaluating the attitudes and perceptions regarding the effectiveness of NIMS is scarce. Training officers from rural fire departments, emergency medical services, and law enforcement agencies were the population for this study (n=33). The results of this study have implications for combined fire department, emergency medical services, and law enforcement training (interoperability), simplification of the management structure, and a mentoring program. This study should be explored further in an urban setting, based on this model. This study showed that respondents agreed that rural emergency responders tend to be noncompliant with NIMS. Respondents mentioned that rural emergency responders disagree with the effectiveness of NIMS. This study showed that a correlation occurred between the effectiveness of NIMS and the number of times a respondent was involved in a formal NIMS incident command. The following recommendations were made based on the findings and conclusions of this study. Researchers should continue to look at what public safety training officers believe affects the adaptability of NIMS. Training officers should consider contributing to the future NIMS curriculum. Training officers should focus on interoperability issues through increased field exercises. Research should be conducted to determine what improvements to curriculum effect future NIMS compliance. Further research should be conducted on the effectiveness of individual compliance, and achievement.

Adopted in 2003, the National Incident Management System is the nation’s first standardized management system unifying the actions of all levels of governments during a large-scale emergency response. It sets the standard for interagency coordination and communication in the event of an emergency. This professional report seeks to produce a working, NIMS-compliant emergency communication plan for the City of Austin, Texas. The report begins with an explanation of NIMS, focusing on the national protocols for interagency communication and public information. It then presents a case study of emergency communications in practice, examining two firestorms in San Diego County, California that occurred four years apart – prior to and after the County’s implementation of NIMS communications protocols. The report synthesizes best practices in emergency communications – from both NIMS research and the San Diego case study – to create the City of Austin Public Information and Emergency Communication Plan, an operational guide that fully utilizes the tools and organizational structure of all City departments, including the City’s Communications and Public Information Office. / text

CHDS State/Local / Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Threatened with the loss of federal funding for Homeland Security and emergency management preparedness programs, state and local entities must implement the National Response Plan and the National Incident Management System, which includes the Incident Command System, Unified Command, and the Multiagency Coordination System. Although mandated by Congress and implemented by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5, underdeveloped areas of Indian country and small towns, especially farming and ranching communities and agriculturally-based counties are likely to find that they do not have the capacity to fully implement these mandated federal response programs. A theoretical terrorist-induced multistate Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak is used to examine the impact of implementing newly established federally mandated response management programs on rural and tribal communities in agrarian states. Recovering from such an agroterrorism bioattack would require a coordinated multi-disciplinary response that is heavily dependent on local, tribal, state, and private sector personnel. However, because the United States has not experienced an outbreak of FMD since 1929, many of the skills required to quickly diagnose and respond may no longer exist. This thesis identifies potential methods for obtaining and deploying the FMD virus in a coordinated bioattack on the U.S. economy. / Director, Idaho Bureau of Disaster Services