03-099 - King County / Tukwila et al - Law Enforcement Mutal Aid and Mobilization

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incident command and is aided by those resources sent in response to this request for aid. In the event that the emergency is of such a nature that it exceeds the individual junsdictional boundanes, a unified command shall be established until the mutual aid situation ceases to exist and operations return to normal boundanes. Whenever significant resources from other agencies must be mobilized and brought into a jurisdiction in order to resolve a given problem, even when the scope of the problem is such that it is physically contained within the boundaries of the specific single jurisdiction requesting mutual aid, it is expected that an appropnate incident command staff be developed and that the senior staff officers responsible for the mutual aid assets will fill roles within the incident command structure Successful mutual aid operations must be based upon professional respect and also upon acknowledgement of the fact that the Incident Commander in charge also is responsible and legally liable for his decisions and actions It must also be borne in mind that those in charge of mutual aid assets are still free to accept or refuse to carry out requests requiring specific missions, which would utilize and exhaust the assets for which they are responsible. VI. Control While the question of technical command and responsibility is one, which requires specific designation of an Incident Commander, the exercise of control over responding mutual aid units and combinations of units brings up an entirely different set of concerns Wherever possible, the supervisor or staff officer in charge of a group of responding units from an assisting agency would report to the Incident Commander as liaison and be assigned to specific tasks or missions, for which he /she would use his own departmental personnel. NOTE Because of the possibility that reserve officers will be used in many responses to requests for mutual aid, it is important to establish and record their presence and to verify the fact that they are certified reserves within the scope of the definition of the "Peace Officer Powers Act," and have met the requirements established by the Washington Criminal Justice Training Commission. Reserve officers should generally work under supervisors or regular officers from their own agencies, but under some circumstances (depending on the scope of the operation), might be configured into a special reserve contingent for handling special assignments such as roadblock, evacuation, fixed -point traffic control, etc VII. Press Relations It shall be the responsibility of the requesting agency in conjunction with the Incident Commander to establish a press area and to assign a public information officer to handle immediate inquires during any given incident. All releases of information through the public information function should be approved by the Incident Commander 3