Terrorism information management within the New York City Fire Department past, present and future

Abstract

The New York City Fire Department, like the entire fire service, has been proven to be a primary stakeholder in Homeland Security. The mindset of firefighters is influenced by traditional and expected roles that are not fully considerate of the challenges accompanying the "new enemy" of terrorism. A fundamental deficiency is herein identified as the manner in which information is managed. The FDNY must adapt so as to recognize information as an entity that must be collected, saved and utilized holistically for greater preventative and response capabilities. It must adopt lessons learned by others in the pursuit of better information management. These needs also exist, to a great extent, within the national fire service. This thesis will use a detailed analysis of existing FDNY information systems, a review of the criticality of information to past events, and the perspectives of FDNY firefighters to identify common denominators of deficiency. It will examine the manner in which others have confronted the issue of information management with an eye toward extracting salient lessons. The operational and psychological ramifications of poor information management will be explored. Finally, concepts that hold promise for the underpinning of practical solutions to the information management problem are presented.