Best Way - Emergency Operations Center Policies & Procedures

"Introduction to Emergency Management" defines an emergency operations center---or EOC---as "a facility located in a safe area that provides support to responders at the scene of an incident." This support includes supplying information, personnel, equipment and supplies. To function properly, an EOC must have appropriate policies and procedures in place before an emergency occurs.

Policies and Procedures

1. Emergency managers should ensure that all stakeholders involved with emergency activities participate in making policy decisions for the EOC. This includes emergency managers, local officials, first responders, business leaders and community representatives. Budget and space constraints may not permit all stakeholders to achieve all their priorities. However, considering each group's ideas will help ensure successful implementation of the chosen policies.
   
   Federal and state guidelines for EOC policies and procedures must be followed. The center must be designed and organized according to National Incident Management System and Incident Command System requirements. Also, the EOC must operate as defined by the local emergency operations plan. Many states provide sample plans, which can be customized for local communities, and these plans must be written before the EOC can be effectively utilized.
   
   Policies and procedures related to emergency assessmen t should be developed early in the process. These include detecting and classifying regional threats, monitoring regional hazards and environment and monitoring and assessing local populations. Knowing this information will enable emergency managers to determine the most common hazards for their communities, identify potential hazardous situations and respond to these situations more quickly and efficiently. The all-hazards approach should be used, which will allow emergency managers and first responders to enhance their use of personnel, procedures and equipment in all types of disasters.
   
   The EOC's primary purpose is to support first responders; however, emergency managers must also provide information, warnings and protection to the general population. Policies and procedures for selecting protective action steps and warning systems must be developed. During an incident, EOC communications with broadcast and print media will provide information to a large percen tage of the population. However, emergency managers must also recognize those segments of the population, such as the deaf, not reached effectively by these media and develop policies and procedures for disseminating information and warnings to these segments as well.
   
   The bulk of EOC policies and procedures will focus on incident management. Procedures for notifying and mobilizing responder agencies and their equipment, documenting incident events and responses, handling logistics, organizing financial and administrative details, maintaining internal direction and control, providing public information and organizing external coordination must be planned, developed, communicated to all interested agencies and rehearsed. These policies and procedures will ensure that emergency management and other staff at the EOC will fulfill their mission smoothly, in a timely manner, efficiently and accurately.
   
   While the EOC is officially activated only during emergen cies, emergency managers should consider developing policies and procedures for non-activation use of the EOC space. A centralized location for presenting after-action reports, training sessions, scholarly research of materials on local hazards, vulnerabilities, and risk analyses, and meetings of emergency-related groups, such as the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster and Amateur Radio Emergency Service, will help encourage the community's involvement in disaster prevention, maintain an awareness of emergency management actions and improve cooperation and coordination among organizations at all levels of the community.