66. Individual public safety officers will be asked to do the work of
squads or companies; they will have to recruit volunteers on the spot to
provide assistance to their efforts.
COMMENT: This was probably never more true that it was in the recent
incidents in New York City and Washington, D.C. Last week, this column
addressed the phenomena known as “convergence”. While it applies to
all
emergency response teams, whether public or private, I will put it only in
the context of EMCOMM. Every ARES and/or ACS/RACES plan needs to have a section that deals with the “convergent volunteer”. If this issue is
not
anticipated and planned for; it will become a significant problem.
Properly addressed, it can become an asset and part of the solution.
Ideally, Each ARES team will have an experienced AEC (or an EC from another
area) with good “people skills”; assigned to register, orient, and train
(if need be) the operators that suddenly appear out of nowhere wanting to
help. Once they have been properly registered and cleared, assignments can
be made by the EC or his/her appointee.
You can quickly double your team’s response capability, by assigning a new
recruit to work with a skilled EMCOMM operator for the first few hours or
days.