The New York City Urban Search and Rescue Team (NY-TF1) : a case study of interagency effectiveness

Abstract

Since September, 2001, the New York City (NYC) emergency services have striven to more closely align their component disciplines into one coordinated and collaborative effort. Despite improvements in emergency management, the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) and New York City Police Department (NYPD) are still separate operational entities. An evolution in the terrorist threat challenges NYC emergency agencies and finds them unprepared for a complex terror event. Terrorist seek to divide first-responder efforts at such an attack. Evidence from the Mumbai attacks indicates an optimal response to a similar incident requires an unprecedented level of firstresponder synergy. This thesis asserts that the synergistic elements in the New York City Urban Search and Rescue Task Force (NY-TF1) are applicable to the interagency challenges in the FDNY-NYPD response relationship. The methodology of this thesis is a single case study of NY-TF1 involving set of seven key leader interviews. Each discipline provided three levels of leadership confirmed the assertions of this thesis. The seventh interview, the senior civilian administrator for the New York City Urban Search and Rescue Task Force (NY-TF1), also supported this study's findings. The conclusions of this study are drawn from commonalities in the data collected. The FDNY and NYPD can achieve an emergency services synergy adapting NY-TF1 organizational designs and systemic processes into the greater response relationship.