Understanding the roles and responsibilities of public
services when attending scene of an emergency response
incident
Initial actions of first in attendance
Casualties – Number or estimated people
Hazards – Present or potential
Access – Routes in and out for the emergency and other services
Location – Exact location of incident
Emergency Services Required – Present and needed
Type of Incidents – E.g. car accident, somethings on fire etc.
Practical public service work
Police investigations
When something happens and it requires police attention, the police are required to
investigate the incident to see if anyone needs to come in for questioning and to see if anyone
involved could already be wanted and if there are any links to anyone else, a little crime
investigation could be really big as the suspect could be someone who is already wanted for
something like murder. (Code of practice for victims of crime, 2015)
Use of scene of crime officers
If the cause of a specific incident is suspicious for example a fire within a warehouse that is
discovered maybe in the early hours of the morning then these are the people (scene of crime
officers) who would be called out to examine the scene and then they would look towards
trying to gather any evidence to establish the cause. This could potentially be CCTV footage
or it could be forensic analysis and anything useful can be used as evidence potentially if the
case is brought before trial. (Stevenson, n.d.)
Scene preservation
When one arrives at the incident, the first officer at the scene does not get involved in the
rescue as they will be in charge of assessing the situation and to ensure they can maintain
, contact within control. The first officer takes command of the incident until the formal
control structure is established. (NOT AVAILABLE., 2019)
Their vehicle would then become the forward control point.
Crowd control
This is maintaining control over a group of people usually ones who are likely to cause
trouble. (Rhoden and Cato, 2017)
This would involve lots off officers depending on how many people are at one place. For
those trying to maintain order in these situations the key to success is always being in control
no matter how much it may escalate.
Ambulance service
When a really serious incident has occurred, the ambulance service will be coordinated with
the support of the Ambulance Incident Office but from then on until the arrival at the scene
the very first paramedic who gets there from the response unit will be required to:
Report arrival onto the scene to the Ambulance control. This is so they then know
that it has arrived all ok and know that the ambulance is not free so not to try send it
anywhere else whilst it is with someone.
Provide the control people with details of the incident
Ensure that the nearest hospitals that can receive people are aware so they can
make a space for them.
Navy, army, RAF and fire services assisting in civil emergencies
The armed forces usually are not involved in planning for any potential major incidents
within the civilian community because of they are busy enough doing what they need to do
already. (Mental Capacity Act 2005, 2007)
However, military assistance would often be used when there is an emergency incident as
they can then offer expert advice and guidance by using their skilled personnel and military
vehicles that they have. An example of when the military have been called in to help with a
situation was the Boscastle floods which happened back in 2004 and seven helicopters from
both the Royal Navy and the RAF were used to evacuate 150 people who would have been
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