Why Is NIMS Important

The Importance of NIMS to Campus Emergency Response:
Over the past several years, there has been a rise in critical incidents on our college and university campuses, which has forced administrators to reevaluate the need to have effective campus safety. The National Incident Management System (NIMS) was developed by the Department of Homeland Security in March 2004 to “provide a systematic, proactive approach for all government agencies at all levels, nongovernment organizations, and private sector to work seamlessly to prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents- regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity- to reduce the loss of life, destruction of property, and harm to the environment” (Fazzini, 2009, p. 14). NIMS provides colleges and universities the aptitudes and ability to respond to critical incidents and offers campuses a considerable approach to protecting students.
For colleges and universities to truly understand campuses safety, it is important for administrators to understand NIMS and what it has to offer. Recently, the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority funded a

report that completed a nationwide examination of the relationship between local law enforcement agencies and post-secondary institutions (Fazzini, 2009. One of the significant findings showed that in the past five years many college and university campuses have experienced critical incidents. These findings emphasized the need for effective and proficient plans to be in place outlining emergency responses to critical incidents.
Through NIMS, college and universities can show compliance, which in turn can provide financial benefits to their institutions (Fazzini, 2009).

If a critical incident should occur, the response and recovery from emergency situation can expense a significant monetary incurrence. Establishments that have put NIMS into operation are eligible to recuperate any portion of their operative expense from the federal government. “Additionally, NIMS offers a predefined, yet flexible, organizational structure that can be altered, as necessary, to ensure maximum effectiveness during small operations or complex responses and extended in scope if an incident grows in size” (Fazzini, 2009, p. 15). The flexibility of NIMS can be adjusted to accommodate operational function of the incident, geographical boundaries, or a consolidation of

both.
How NIMS works is through the design of distributing assignments from four main categories- planning, operations, logistics and administration, and finance (Fazzini, 2009). Each of these categories is assigned a primary and secondary function that have the ability to be fragmented into groups, task forces, divisions, branches, or strike teams. Each category can be staffed as needed, but every incident will require an incident commander to oversee operational needs. Common terminology and acronyms are utilized to allow NIMS compliant agencies the ability to deploy collectively with the understanding and ability to effectively communicate and complete the mission (Fazzini, 2009). “Documentation of all activities records important information, such as resources deployed, safety precautions taken, media messages written, and equipment ordered, pertaining to the response to an incident, as well as the necessary justification for requesting reimbursement of expenses from the federal government” (Fazzini, 2009).
Institutions must maintain compliance when implementing NIMS and will be required to adhere to a five step "continuum for compliance”. With this in mind it will be important for colleges and universities to stress to their governing boards the importance of working within the NIMS structure and ensure that all personnel are trained, emergency operation plans are established, periodically conduct exercises to test the efforts on campus, and review the system on a continual basis (Fazzini, 2009).
Once the authority or governing board has accepted and implemented NIMS into all departments, it will be important to update policies and procedures, and ensure that all staff members complete annual NIMS and Incident Command System (ICS) training on annual basis. Through training, campus administrators can complete and implement the merge operations plan that can be merged into the NIMS system (Fazzini, 2009). In this process it will be important to form a committee and ensure that members from the various departments, to include police and fire are included. After plans are finalized, campus administrators, police, fire departments, the local office of emergency management must receive a copy and review it for any discrepancies (Fazzini, 2009).
Upon the completion of reviewing all plans, it will be crucial for the institution to conduct an exercise to test the effectiveness of the procedures. Community partners such as police, fire and other responding agencies should be included in the exercise to identify any response or communication deficiencies that may have been overlooked (Fazzini, 2009). This can be accomplished through tabletop exercises or by completing full-scale exercises, which will call for the mobilization of more staff and resources, but will test the true effectiveness of the tactics. To ensure that institutions stay current on their plans will be important to conduct exercises and simulated drills on a regular basis (Fazzini, 2009).
In conclusion, it is important for institutions of higher learning to be prepared to respond to critical incidents. The National Incident Management System (NIMS) provides a basic structure and framework for colleges and universities to establish emergency response plans, to safeguard students, faculty, and facilities.