Police Departments

The routine, primary responsibilities of police departments and other law enforcement agencies are to protect lives and property, maintain public order, and enforce the law in the communities they patrol. In times of disaster, the role played by police departments flows from these charges. The modern police department can serve in a range of capacities beyond law enforcement, and expanded policing functions characteristic of large, modern departments have made them key participants in emergency management activities.

Disasters, like any other events that have a significant impact on communities, have their own mythology—a set of community-held beliefs that, while false, drive a number of perceptions and behaviors. One of the most enduring disaster myths is that of rampant lawlessness in the immediate aftermath of an event such as an earthquake, hurricane, or other natural catastrophe. Looting, price gouging, panicked flight, and violence are assumed to follow directly from the disruption of community norms and subsequent breakdown of social order. Disaster historians, however, have identified numerous instances—such as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake—of police department resources being deployed en masse as prophylactics against disorder. Military assets that could have been utilized in search and rescue and relief efforts were also mobilized to supplement law enforcement activities. Similarly, in Hurricane Katrina's wake in 2005, legions of police officers from across the United States converged on New Orleans to “restore law and order.”

Despite the media attention given to this ramping up of law enforcement operations, the reality of the social response to disasters is that communities tend to cohere, and are unified toward the common good. The diversion of police department resources to counter a nonexistent threat can often stymie efforts to apply their manpower and expertise in more necessary rescue functions. However, some experts argue that the mere presence of police officers in an area is enough to create a visible deterrent to violence and social disorder.

Still, police departments do have a primary responsibility for the provision of routine security and infrastructure protection. Traffic control, the establishment and maintenance of physical security perimeters around hazardous or sensitive areas, and other routine patrol functions are necessary police department functions in emergency management. However, they are not reflective of the full spectrum of capacities characteristic of the modern metropolitan police department. For example, within the nearly 38,000-member ranks of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) is a [Page 488]cadre of specialists in urban search and rescue and other functions essential to disaster management. The officers assigned to the Emergency Services Unit have distinguished themselves time and again both inside New York and, as part of FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Task Force, around the world, bringing equipment and technical expertise beyond what is normally considered a law enforcement function. The application of expanded policing functions such as canine units and underwater dive teams is not unique to the NYPD. Police departments factor significantly in FEMA's 28 USAR task forces nationwide.

In situations that require mass evacuation, police departments are often the lead agencies. They establish contraflow plans, close roadways and other thoroughfares, and provide information to citizens who otherwise may not know what to do. These duties, like all others, require careful coordination between multiple law enforcement agencies at the local, state, and federal levels.

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