The recent events in Paris; Philadelphia; and San Bernardino, California, have reinvigorated the emergency services’ discussions of strategy and tactics in response to terrorism. Foreign terrorist organizations desire to obtain chemical weapons to use in attacks against innocent people and have called for continued acts such as the San Bernardino active shooting. Once again, the fire service must make hard decisions about its response posture for high-risk, low-frequency mass-casualty incidents (MCIs) resulting from intentional acts of violence.
Most agency leaders have little experience in this arena since the United States has fortunately had few organized terrorist attacks since the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center (WTC) attacks. How do we challenge this ever-changing threat, and what procedures should we adopt?
There is no single answer. Some tactics that work in one municipality will fail in another. Other agencies react to intelligence and threat analysis meant for a specific location or municipality that does not apply to their area, expending time and monies that could have been geared toward another need.
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