Nearly a decade and a half after it was published, Center for Homeland Defense and Security Master’s Program alum Cynthia Renaud’s work on critical incident response continues to serve as the basis for valued law enforcement and other first responder training and policy.
Renaud (Master’s cohort 0901/0902), a veteran law enforcement official who now serves as the CHDS Emergence Program Director, completed her Master’s thesis entitled “Making Sense in the Edge of Chaos: A Framework for Effective Initial Response Efforts to Large-Scale Incidents” in 2010, earning the cohort’s “Best Thesis Award” for her work. After graduation, she published an article entitled “The Missing Piece of NIMS: Teaching Incident Commanders How to Function in the Edge of Chaos” in CHDS’ online publication Homeland Security Affairs Journal.
Renaud’s research analyzed the National Incident Management System (NIMS), suggesting that while it is a useful framework for managing large-scale incidents, it should go further in guiding first responders about how to navigate the chaotic outset of a catastrophic event, recommending ways to use and train with that framework.
Then serving as Folsom, CA, Police Chief, Renaud’s research into the early stages of incident command gained global recognition, affording her the opportunity to present her research at multiple conferences, both domestically and internationally.
In addition, her research drew the attention of the California Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission, which then convened a small group of subject matter experts who, over the course of two years, created a two-week educational experience and training content that helps those tasked as the initial responding incident commander better work through the initial phase of chaos inherent in every critical incident, enabling them to apply the principles of the incident command system with purpose. Along with being California POST certified, the course is also U.S. Department of Homeland Security certified, which affords jurisdictions the opportunity to use grant funding in order to bring this valuable education and training to their local areas.
Recognizing that course content is only as good as the instructors delivering and facilitating it, The Regional Training Center (RTC) was asked to step in and bring the curriculum to life. Under the direction of retired SWAT supervisor Kris Allshouse, now serving as the Executive Director of The Regional Training Center (a Southern California-based non-profit offering training to public safety agencies) a FEMA grant was secured, and from 2015 to the present this valuable training has been available to all agencies through the RTC.
“I recognized the tremendous value of bridging the gap between the initial response to critical incidents in the first hour, and the more stabilized response that follows,” Allshouse said. “The significant importance of this course is that it was largely missing in law enforcement ICS training. NIMS and (the Standardized Emergency Management System or SEMS) course are broadly taught, but those systems are not designed to provide much help in the first hour of chaos. We are setting up law enforcement for failure because they are not given the tools to manage hyperdynamic incidents, especially when it is an opposition of wills (a criminal event).”
According to Allshouse, the training based on Renaud’s research “slows the game down” for incident commanders because they become comfortable working in the rapidly evolving critical incidents that would otherwise overwhelm them.
“It’s really been the missing piece of ICS training,” Allshouse said, noting that many students of the course have “shared how it has significantly improved the way in which they resolve critical incidents. Instead of using a check-box approach of precedent decision-making, it actually examines the specific tactical problem to figure out the best, most effective, and safest resolution.”
Roseville, CA, Police Department Capt. Douglas Blake is a believer. Blake said the two-week course he attended based on Renaud’s research “proved essential during a hostage crisis and subsequent incidents,” adding that Renaud’s work highlighting gaps in ICS protocol and strategies for handling chaos has been critical to my ability to manage critical incidents and explain the challenges of the initial chaotic phase. Now, I teach these principles as key to managing the first moments of any chaotic event.”
Despite his experience as a SWAT tactical commander, Blake said he “didn’t fully appreciate how essential this training would be” until an incident earlier this year involving an armed suspect who fled investigators at a park, fired numerous rounds at them, striking one officer, and took an elderly woman hostage in a field and then hiding in bushes. As the incident commander, Blake said he managed the situation, which ended after only 40 minutes when officers took the suspect into custody, though not before the hostage was shot. Fortunately, he said, she survived.
“My training, grounded in Renaud’s research, helped me not only function during the incident but also explain to others afterward why there wasn’t a greater sense of ‘order’ and ‘control’ during the initial phase of the incident. NIMS became organized only after the suspect was captured. A few months later, the same suspect escaped from a hospital, leading to another chaotic response where I again applied what I had learned. This time, the operation extended into two additional 12-hour periods, with ICS firmly established.”
Blake said Renaud’s identification of gaps in ICS protocol and her recognition of the chaotic realm in the Cynefin framework, along with her recommendations for moving from chaos to organization, “have been crucial for my performance and ability to both execute and teach the management of critical incidents. Now, based on my education and experience, I educate others about these principles as fundamental to handling the first phase of any chaotic event.”
Allshouse said he wishes Renaud’s research and the training was “more broadly taught,” adding that first responders are “amazed that it’s not more commonplace.”
“Just for the sake of what’s best for our communities, I really feel like this stuff just needs to get pushed out everywhere,” he said, perhaps even serving as a national incident command model.
For Renaud, the continued relevance of her research is satisfying while she also expressed the hope that it could lead to further innovation.
“I’m pleased it’s still making people think,” she said, noting that CHDS Master’s students still read it. “I’m not looking for everyone to agree with it. Take what I wrote and move it forward. Talk about what’s currently happening, how it applies, what you can discover. Use it as a foundation to springboard off of and keep thinking about the current environment. That’s what I’m most pleased about. It’s about making people think and if It’s still doing that, that’s great.”
