Sorry for not participating, I've been meaning to visit more often.
I read the slide and I agree, the Operations Section Chief is the one in charge. Does it matter if he passes his orders along to the team leader or to a CAP IC/LO who tells the OSC, who tells the GBD, who tells the GTL?
Efficient? No, but it seems like the control still ultimately falls to the Operations Section Chief.
I see issues more at the tactical level, where teams will be working beside one another but our guys will be answering to a different chain of command (that ultimately reaches the same person).
Yes, it does matter, because that is NOT how ICS works.
First off, the person that CAP sends to someone else's incident is an Agency Representative, not an LO. The LO is the person on the command staff of the host agency to whom the agency rep reports. CAP created the position of “Agency Liaison” when it revamped ES and created CAPR 60-3 in the late 90s/early 00s. This combined the titles of two ICS positions with opposite functions. Talk about confusion.
The AL quals and SQTRs were finally dropped and changed to the correct title of simply Liaison Officer (on SQTR and 101 card) although the task guide still refers to the position as Agency Liaison. Read task C-2000 which uses this incorrect term but describes the duties of both the Agency Representative and Liaison Officer correctly.
CAP does not have an Agency Representative (AREP) “qualification” because this person needs to have IC qualifications, so 60-3 para. 1-3(d) was reworded to make it clear that an IC is sent as the AREP. It is the responsibility of the CAP AREP to “ensure that all CAP resources are used in accordance with approved polices and procedures.” (verbatim from 1-3(d))
This does not mean that CAP has its own structure parallel to the rest of the incident. It means that the CAP AREP tells the LO, incident IC or unified command (not the OSC) what CAP’s limitations are. These are relayed to the OSC [and PSC] via the proper chain of command (not the CAP AREP) who then assign CAP resources to tasks within their limits. This is no different than how any other assisting or cooperating agency operates, and is the point of the third bullet on the referenced slide.
If CAP still insists that it has to have its own structure (I would send them home) an OSC could create a CAP Group with the CAP GBD in the role of Group Supervisor. This GBD would report to, and take direction from, the OSC. In most cases, all this does is add a level of management and complexity unnecessary to incident operations.
Mike
