se the fire service is a key component of homeland security.
In addition, over $1 billion was appropriated to the HSGP. This grant is specifically targeted to support the building, sustainment and delivery of core capabilities to secure the nation. These funds are being used to build homeland-security capabilities across the entire community, including the fire service.
This year, Congress provided $10 million for state and local governments to counter violent extremism. The funding can be used in part for training and exercises. Fire departments that understand they’re part of the all-hazard approach to protecting our communities can work to secure federal resources to build their capabilities.
When We Prepare for Terrorism, We Become Better Prepared for All Emergencies
The technical skills gained during jointly held terrorism training has wide applicability to other emergencies.
When law-enforcement officers train with firefighters for active-shooter events, the ICS skills transfer over to working together at accident scenes. When law enforcement officers are included in a mass-casualty exercise and have to apply bleeding control techniques, they can use those same skills when they arrive first to a stabbing on a routine call. Firefighters who are trained for suspicious-activity reporting should have better situational awareness and reporting of their findings to incident command when at a house fire.
While there’s much to be gained with technical skills, more important are the relationships that are built with other agencies. Street-level firefighters, EMS workers and police officers who train or exercise together for a terrorism event will most likely run into each other on the street. This is particularly true in small and mid-sized communities.
We know that when people get to know each other on an individual basis, it builds trust.
Trust is required to amicably resolve a difference of opinion on blocking a lane at the scene of an MVA. Trust is needed when the hazmat team tells the law-enforcement officer that he’s parked too close to an accident and he needs to move. Trust is needed when the police investigator asks us not to destroy evidence while we’re working a drug deal gone bad. Joint terrorism training builds this trust.