<p> Public safety organizations in rural communities often face unique challenges during an emergency response that differ from their metropolitan counterparts. Despite implementation of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) in 2004 to better facilitate collaboration among local, state, and federal emergency response partners, many rural communities have had difficulty complying with the policy. Using a case study design, the current study considers the successful collaborative response to the 2012 Chardon, Ohio, high school shooting within the context of three foundational theories: meta-leadership, structural functionalism, and social constructivism. The perspective of the successful response comes from 10 public safety response personnel who worked for organizations in Northeast Ohio and who responded to or were familiar with the collaborative response to the 2012 shooting incident. The findings from the study consider the unique challenges faced by the Chardon emergency response community and identify the benefits of pre-disaster preparedness training as recommended by NIMS, the need to build relationships through informal channels, and, most importantly, that alternative approaches to NIMS may be necessary in small communities that lack resources or have other inherent challenges. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3714470 |
| Date | 03 September 2015 |
| Creators | Cohen, Stacy E. |
| Publisher | Capella University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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