NIMS is dead

NIMS is dead...you still have to take the classes and jump through the hoops...but the practice is dead. Few if any local governments or response agencies are truly NIMS compliant and the NIMS CAST has become just another checklist - to "say" we've done it. In reality our practice of NIMS under the National Response Framework is no better off at improving on-scene coordination and interoperability than twenty years ago.

Example? Example, please, you ask? How about the Nations largest city encountering a total failure of responsse to a preditced snowstorm...and then fires the EMS Chief. Further, a lack of coordination continues between traditional response groups. No intel sharing, little if any interoperability. In some cases continual and intentional withholding of critical infrastructure data and assessments.

And perhaps worst of all is the absence change to the antiquated hierarchy...that is we allow certain groups of traditional responders to be treated as second-class citizens within the incident command structure. The so-called NIMS trained "command" personnel continue to ignore a unified command structure or even to allow for input from other traditional response disciplines...despite our collective (supposed) universal NIMS training.

More to come.