INCIDENT COMMAND TRAINING
WITH HOMELAND SECURITY GRANTS
Scenario targeted domestic dissidents in anti-terror training exercise
December 27, 2008
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AN EXAMPLE OF A MULTI-AGENCY INCIDENT: The suicide of MCSO deputy Eric Gore, January 2, 2008 in Ukiah. Responding were CHP, sheriffs, Ukiah City police, Modesto police and local fire crews. The apartment building was evacuated after a shot was heard. Eventually, a robot was sent inside to secure the scene before SWAT went in. Here, sheriff Tom Allman is standing on the gangplank of the Mobile Command Unit speaking with Ukiah Police chief Chris Dewey. The MCU has robust microwave radio capabilities and was purchased with Homeland Security anti-terrorism grants. RJ photo. |
by Richard Johnson
n Dan Hamburg recently expressed concern that an emergency preparedness exercise held at Mendocino College earlier this month might signal a threat to civil liberties. Federal Homeland Security consultants apparently led local law enforcement and fire officials in a scenario that should raise some questions, if not alarms.
According to the flippant and sketchy report by Ukiah Daily Journal cub reporter Zack Cizak the scenario included threats to the county fair from “anti-war protesters, animal rights groups and other organizations” as a female senator was to announce her presidential ambitions.
What's going on here?
Homeland Security Money for Local Governments
On September 23, the Board of Supervisors approved a Federal State Homeland Security Grant Program application for $248,892 for fiscal 2008-09. The funds are to be spent for domestic preparedness planning, training, and exercises and for the acquisition of fire, law enforcement, hazardous material and emergency medical equipment and must be expended for specific projects rather than generally allocated to jurisdictions and/or emergency response disciplines.
The State Office of Homeland Security (OHS), which administers the grant program for California, has included a grant condition requiring each Operational Area to appoint an “Anti-Terrorism Approval Authority” to ensure that the funds are equitably distributed among first response agencies. The State directed that the Approval Authority consist of: the County Sheriff, the County Fire Chief, the County Health Officer, a Municipal Police Chief as selected by the Operational Area police chiefs, and a Municipal Fire Chief as selected by the Operational Area Fire Chiefs. The State further requires that the Operational Area Council appoint the Approval Authority members.
In Mendocino County, the Anti-Terrorism Approval Body is dubbed “The Gang of Five, or the Group of Five,” apparently to remove the stigma of terrorism or anti-terrorism.
The September application called for authority to sign all documents submitted to the state be expanded from Carmel Angelo, the director of Health and Human Services to include Sheriff Allman and the “Gang of Five chair.”
In this county, the Group of Five consists of Sheriff Allman, Ukiah Valley Fire District Chief Dan Grabil, Angelo, Chris Dewey the Ukiah Police Chief, and the Ukiah City Fire Marshall..
FEMA Training at Mendocino College
Mendocino College has gotten its own Homelander grant to provide emergency preparedness training for students and staff.
In addition, they hosted the December emergency preparedness training required by the National Incident Management System and the California Standard Incident Management System which lasted from December 8 -18.. Attending were from 20-30 local police, fire, emergency and government personnel from all over the county, including the Ukiah city manager, the police chief Chris Dewey, Point Arena city councilmembers, the County Emergency Servieces director William Woodruff, undersheriff Gary Hudson, Carmel Angelo, and a representative of the Ukiah Airport and many others
NIMS and SIMS set protocols for the conduct of emergency responders during all incidents great and small, from a traffic accident to a WMD detonation. They also set standards of competence in specific fields such as police, fire and medical responders.
These rules provide for the top down establishment of Incident Commands and Incident Command Centers from beginning to end of all emergencies. The model is based on how fire departments work, with the chief of the first engine on scene designated as Incident Commander. The other subchiefs and captains report to him for assignments as they arrive. The dispatcher announces which frequencies are to be used for tactical communications, command communications, etc.
Those who are to fulfill those roles must be certified. If they are not, the county might be denied reimbursement for its emergency response costs, such as during last summer's fires.
Participants took courses toward certification in FEMA's Incident Command System 300 for expanding incidents and 400 for complex incidents, explained Mendocino County sheriff Tom Allman to this reporter in an exclusive interview in his office the day after Christmas.
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SIMPLIFIED EXAMPLE INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM organizational chart. Those directly under the Incident Command are called the General Staff. Apart from Safety, Public Information and Liason. he acronym is FLOP, Finance, Logistics, Operations and Planning. An Incident Command structure is set up and personneled by local officials for each Incident, tasked with carrying out a response Event, after which there will be a Demobilization. The ICs can be absorbed into Area Commands or Multi Agency Commands if an emergency extends geographically or involves multiple local, state or federal agencies. If needed, Unified Command teams will consist of local, state and/or federal agency representatives. Intelligence gathering units can be implanted at any level. |
The ICS system is flexible but has a designated format which is uniform across the nation for both government agencies and private institutions such as universities, timber companies, and oil firms. This is designed to eliminate problems such as were encountered during 911 in New York when the various fire and police units were unable to communicate with each other or function in a coordinated fashion.
The FEMA workbooks contain several sample exercises that challenge students to design ICs that can cope with multiple impacts in diverse communities from one incident, multiple and diverse incidents such as chemical spills during floods or traffic accidents, and in the case cited in the news report, a single incident involving federal, state and local agencies.
It would have been only one of a half dozen examples in the FEMA workbooks, but it was not specified in the workbooks Allman loaned me.
Sheriff Allman explained to this reporter that the way he designed his team's response in the exercise in question, city police formed the IC, CHP officers managed the crowds at the fair, while the secret service was limited to protecting the candidate. Allman described as operations chief how he would keep the protesters separate from the candidate, but allow them access to media, probably in a fenced off "Free Speech" zone, "so they wouldn't be assaulted." by fairgoers.
He alluded to his experience with Earth First! when he was Central Sector commander in which symbolic arrests were planned in advance to avoid the use of pain holds.
In response to one concern of this reporter, he specifically denied that local officials were gathering information on citizens under the Homeland Security grants, "I wouldn't allow it," he said.
While Allman may have responded to the exercise that way, the FEMA workbooks include the notiion of "Unified Command" in which representatives of various levels of government, or different disciplines such as police and disease control experts for example, would form command teams. In one example a regional earthquake might have ICs in each city and county reporting to a Unified regional command.
In addition, the protocol allows for the insertion of Intelligence gathering units at any level of the IC structure.
Equipment and Infrastructure
When asked about future anti-terrorism activities planned with the Homeland Security grant money, Allman said there were none, but pointed with pride to the equipment and infrastructure purchases that enhance general emergency response and law enforcement capabilities.
One is the moble command vehicle with microwave coordination capabilies, and another the REHIT truck for hazardous materials response.
The activities do include two day HazMat training courses.
Where's the Beef?
Were civil liberties compromised? Perhaps not, this time. But why are dissident American citizens instead of terrorists being posited as a threat to a political candidate at the county fair? The use of the scenario and its report on the press is a smear on our movement, such as it is. It's important we understand the NIMS and SIMS protocols as stuff happens during emergencies. The fires on Greenfield Ranch in June were an example of local homesteaders cooperating with a wide range of local and outside agencies. Watershed groups and road associations should be included in future trainings, with or without certification.