It can be difficult to attempt to find a police incident which follows the principles of ICS. This difficulty can come from some of the mentality of police organizations, the scale of incidents, or some combination of the two. Many police incidents act on a small scale, where an officer or a pair of officers respond to a scene as the only agency involved. Larger scaled inidents where more than a small number of police units arrive occur somewhat regularly across the nation, yet in these instances, organization is still fairly limited, with all of the junior officers simply reporting to whomever has assumed the role of Incident Commander (IC) or Officer in Charge (OIC). With this mentality, many of the functions within an ICS fall back to one officer.
For a period of time, the Police Department of Gretna, LA gained notoriaty for turning away victims of Hurricane Katrina. Most of the reports available freely on the Internet from varied media outlets point back to the entire incident being handled by the Gretna Police Chief, Arthur Lawson. In an interview with 60 Minutes’ Ed Bradley, even the mayor for Gretna, Ronnie Harris, stated that the decision to close a bridge crossing the Mississippi was that of the police chief. Further details are unclear, however it can be easily imagined that in some meeting with other officials, likely in an equivilent to an EOC, discussion was made on how to handle evacuees fleeing New Orleans. Somewhere during the discussion, Lawson likely made the suggestion of closing the bridge and turning people away. From that point forward, Lawson was given command of that particular incident. Following older models of being an OIC, rather than an IC, Lawson would have developed further plans of preparing, commanding and managing the incident. Obviously, communication between other law enforcement agencies took place, as agents from Gretna Police, the Jefferson Parish Sherrif’s Office and Crescent City Connection Police were on scene; Jefferson being the parish in which Gretna lies, and Crescent City Connection being the authority for the Crescent City Bridge. Resources were managed between the policing agencies most likely via a Memorandum of Agreement which would have been called into action by Lawson.
Communications for the event would have taken place at the bridge as the officers on scene repeated the message that they had been briefed to give earlier from higher ranks, likely Lawson via subordinates, that the bridge and city was closed to outside parties for the duration. Ongoing management of the incident would, again, have come from the top and trickled down the chain of command.
So, can this incident truly be broken down and a diagram be drawn? Not really. To draw a diagram of the police actions in this event would be to lay out one big box with the Gretna Police Chief placed in the middle, even though it is evident that all the stages/core components were present.
Was this incident handled properly? That question is up for debate. In my opinion, no. The mayor allowing the police chief to close an entrance to the city and order, using forceful maneuvers, the nomadic victims to return whence they came was wrong. Granted, the police department had arranged for busing of the victims prior to the escalation which made the media frenzy, but once their services were seemingly exhausted they should have acted more appropriately. Furthermore, I am curious as to why the incident was handled by the police. Why were the police charged with gathering the resources necessary to divert refugees? Yes, the police should have been there to enforce the event; they should not have been handling the event as it was of such a large scale.
Mirrored from Being Jeremiah Palmer.
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