Weaknesses in the National Incident Management System

National Incident Management System (NIMS)

Weaknesses in the National Incident Management System

There is much controversy with regard to the contemporary idea of terrorism and concerning the actions that are being taken in order to discourage and generally prevent terrorist threats. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade center have influenced the masses to have a completely new understanding of terrorism in general. The Department of Homeland Security designed the National Incident Management System (NIMS) as a concept that would address a series of flaws in the way that the U.S. tried to cope with potential terrorist threats. Even with the fact that it was especially effective in preventing a series of terrorist acts, NIMS is essentially built as a constantly improving mechanism -- it is meant to discover weaknesses and make sure they are not used with the purpose of harming the public.

One of the principal weaknesses of NIMS is believed by many to be its condition as a department meant to combine a series of operations and agencies. The type of duties that the institution needs to take on can be very diverse and it thus requires a great deal of effort from its top management. "NIMS represents a core set of doctrines, concepts, principles, terminology, and organizational processes that enables effective, efficient, and collaborative incident management." (United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency, p. 3)

In some situations the wide range of attitudes that NIMS needs to take on in order to effectively deal with an incident might have particular institutions work against each-other and prevent each-other's ability to do their jobs. For instance, NIMS can mobilize two different communities with the purpose of preventing a terrorist threat. However, these respective communities might be inclined to believe that they should act on an individual level in order to experience best results. NIMS sometimes fails to address the needs of each institution it works with and this can lead to conflicts that (if they're not properly dealt with) can eventually prove to have a destructive effect on society as a whole. There have been numerous situations involving firefighters having trouble doing their jobs properly or police officers being unable to secure an area because of each-other's tendency to focus on their jobs. Police officers often ask firefighters to move their vehicles in order to have more control of a situation and in spite of the fact that this can make things easier for them, it can make it more difficult for firefighters to actually do their job (Hess, Orthmann, & Cho, p. 187)