A closer examination of command and control practices by incident commanders during realistic operational exercises in the Netherlands

Abstract

Little scholarly attention has been devoted to understanding command and control practices among incident commanders and the extent to which these practices contribute to response safety and efficiency. This paper examines incident command and control practices of 23 battalion chiefs from a Dutch Fire Service during realistic exercises using largely identical scenarios. A helmet-mounted camera in conjunction with field observation was used to gather data. The results show that although incident command and control practices varied in detail, the strategies used were largely the same. No relationship was discovered between incident command and control practices and response safety and efficiency. A reason for the lack of significance of the command and control function was that battalion chiefs relied essentially on information and advice given by crew commanders, which did not provide a basis for insights other than those already present among crew commanders. Implications for practice are provided.