Guidance for NIMS Resource Typing of Law Enforcement Patrol Teams (Strike Teams) 

 

FEMA approves the issuance of interim guidance to assist state and local governments to request and deploy Law 
Enforcement Patrol Teams (Strike Teams) to serve the immediate needs of the hurricane season. 

 

Peace and civil order are one of the stabilization goals after a disaster has struck, and incident command will draw on Law 
Enforcement Patrol Teams (Strike Teams) to accomplish this and other basic law enforcement services including general 
assistance, crowd and traffic control, and security for responders and critical assets. 

 

Hurricane seasons have provided important lessons about the multi-disciplined, well-managed resources that must be 
drawn in and organized to assist a number of places within a large geographic area. FEMA is issuing interim guidance to 
aid incident management and response organizations to request and to offer Law Enforcement Patrol Teams (Strike 
Teams) that can be merged with the rest of the disaster management resources to ensure that any number of affected 
places can see these basic law enforcement services restored as soon as possible whenever a large disaster occurs. 

 

Law Enforcement Patrol Teams (Strike Teams) are defined as a “resource type” in the interim guidance issued today by 
FEMA. State and local governments and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) can use this new 
Resource Typing Definition immediately for this hurricane season, both to request and to organize and send such 
resources to assist incident command. Federal agencies as organized under the National Response Framework (NRF) 
can also use this Resource Typing Definition when offering their assistance to area and incident commands. 

This Resource Typing Definition is based on the input provided by experts and emergency management practitioners from 
across the U.S., particularly the NIMS Law Enforcement Working Group. Currently available on the FEMA website, the 
interim guidance can be accessed at http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/ResourceMngmnt.shtm#item4 

FEMA seeks to improve NIMS on a continuous basis. This interim guidance can be used immediately. FEMA is also 
requesting that interested persons and organizations carefully look through this guidance, use it if needed, and provide 
comments and observations back to FEMA for use in its determination record when the agency issues the final Resource 
Typing Definition. Comments on the interim guidance should be sent directly to FEMA at: FEMA-NIMS@dhs.gov or 202-
646-3850.