Firefighters and Information Sharing: Smart Practice or Bad Idea?

Abstract

The nation'۪s one million firefighters are embedded in virtually every urban or rural area of the United States. Firefighters enter homes, businesses, vehicles, and other assets during emergency and non-emergency duties thousands of times each day in their efforts to prevent or respond to life and property loss. The unparalleled access that firefighters have to public and private locations puts them in a unique position to positively or negatively impact our nation'۪s homeland defense and security information-sharing efforts. Through the analysis of four local and international information-sharing systems, this article confirms that U.S. fire personnel should participate in terrorism-related information sharing at defined levels. A number of strategic applications and tactical practices are also identified, including the need to provide firefighters with information on threat levels, target hazards, and methods of attack. The information-sharing participation levels, strategies, and tactics are the result of comparing and contrasting the legal compliance, political acceptability, Target Capabilities List linkage, operational impact, and cost of the firefighter-related information sharing systems.