Emergency Management and Critical Incident Response
This domain tests incident command, the New Jersey emergency management structure, active-threat response, and the special protocol for officer-involved shootings.
Structure and authority
The New Jersey Emergency Management Act, N.J.S.A. App. A:9-30 et seq., sets up the state, county, and municipal emergency management structure, with a municipal emergency management coordinator and a municipal Emergency Operations Plan. NIMS and the Incident Command System supply unity of command, common terminology, an Incident Action Plan, and unified command when fire, EMS, and police share the incident. Span of control is three to seven, with five as the target. The Governor may declare a state of emergency; local declarations come through the municipal emergency management structure.
Active threat
First-arriving officers move to the threat; they do not wait for a perimeter. Stabilize, then transition to rescue task forces with EMS operating in a warm zone under escort. Establish casualty collection points, unified command, and a media point away from command.
Officer-involved shootings
Investigative responsibility rests with the county prosecutor's office. The agency secures the scene, preserves weapons and BWC, identifies and separates involved officers, and holds the administrative interview until the criminal investigation clears it. Do not let the incident commander also run the tactical operation - those are different jobs.
Worked example
A barricaded subject holds a hostage. The lieutenant establishes command at a distance, requests the county tactical team, sets inner and outer perimeters, assigns a negotiator liaison, starts a written incident action plan, and briefs the chief. She does not personally lead entry. Each functional group - tactical, negotiations, traffic, media, investigations - gets its own supervisor.
Traps that cost marks
Skipping unified command with fire and EMS; one person commanding and also running tactics; no written IAP; failing to preserve BWC; allowing the agency to interrogate an involved officer before the prosecutor authorizes it.