I'm a proponent of NIMS and Incident Command. But there is an elephant in the room when we talk about compliance. Many communities and specifically law enforcement have opted out of NIMS compliance or even more telling they report that they are compliant but not very proficient. We can't really tell because there is no metric that digs deep enough into performance evaluation to accurately document where we are at.
One problem with this issue of NIMS compliance is that depending on an organizations size and resouces, what is a strength for one organization can be a barrier for another. That is the case with NIMS compliance. There are many legitimate reasons that we are all over the board with our level of command and control expertise and preparedness development.
If NIMS and ICS are all that they are supposed to be--- WHERE IS EVERYBODY? WHY AREN"T SMALLER ORGANIZATIONS MORE EAGER TO COMMIT?
It is time for a full program evaluation of NIMS by an outside organization to help identify all of the barriers to compliance and what measures including customization that might need to be considered to address the legitimate concern that in the case of NIMS and ICS "one size does not fit all."
Why the contribution is important
This topic is important because we are not being totally transparent to our citizens and in some cases our elected leaders. There is an expectation that we will be proficient in application of command and control situations and we are not as good as we can be. This is an opportunity to enhance the safety of our employees and our citizens if we can provide an alternative to the present effort and addressing the concern that "one size does not fit all."