Ask the Fire Chief: Preparing for Civil Unrest

Answer: The Raleigh Fire Department’s mission and focus is to provide professional public safety to our community. Developing the Civil Disorder Incident Management Policy was the first step in educating the City organization on civil disorder and unrest. The objective of the Civil Disorder policy was to:

Clearly define civil disorders and create awareness of the additional hazards and potential dangers when performing duties during unrest.
Establish procedures for RFD’s fire company operations when confronted with civil disorder.
Create a defined operational plan that ensures a rapid, effective, and directed response in a safe manner that is coordinated and executed within the National Incident Management System framework and unified command structure.
Provide notification when civil disorders occur and ensure our members are aware of the change in response model.

The fire department hosted a FEMA Civil Unrest Field Force Extrication Tactics, a three-day course designed to provide responders with skills to operate the tools necessary to extricate people safely from protestor devices. Earlier this month the department hosted the Civil Unrest Planning and Response for Public Safety Agencies class. The course was for City of Raleigh public safety employees and representatives from surrounding public safety agencies. The goal was to help first responders understand their roles and responsibilities when responding to civil unrest.

Coordinating with the 200 Club of Wake County, we’ve provided the organization with protective ballistic vests and helmets for emergency response to civil disorders. Each battalion is equipped with protective equipment for dissemination.

We’re positioned to activate the emergency operations center to facilitate and support any civil disorder/unrest incident within the City of Raleigh.