-Written by David Whittier

In what does an EOC do we talked about the role of the EOC, and how important it was to remember that the EOC does not manage the incident. That is the sole purview of the Incident Commander. The EOC allocates resources, manages incident consequences, and maintains Situational Awareness.

There’s another group that is critical to the management of any serious emergency, and that is the Policy Group. The Policy Group is made up of senior officials within the organization and provides policy guidance and additional support, if necessary, to the EOC Director, who in turn oversees the operational elements of the organization’s support to the site.

Emergency Management BC Doctrine outlines some common responsibilities of the Policy Group:
-Provides overall policy direction
-Sets expenditure limits
-Approves higher level requests for assistance
-Changes or amends bylaws or policies
-Authorizes “declarations”
-Provides direction on public information activities
-Acts as an official spokesperson

The toughest part about the Policy Group to wrap one’s head around is that it is non-operational – its members provide support and organizational insights. There will often be an urge on behalf of the Policy Group to “get into the weeds” and start giving operational direction, just like the Ops Chief sometimes gets the urge to tell the Incident Commander her business. It is an urge to be avoided at all cost. Pick good people, train them in their roles, and let them get on with their jobs.

The Incident Command System structure can be hierarchical and relatively rigid compared to many companies, but it is a format that works, and allows everyone to play their role with reduced friction and a greater understanding of who needs to do what to solve the problem.