Responsibility and Decision Making Transfer in Public Safety and Security Emergencies - A Case Study of School Shootings

The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge of responsibility and decision making transfer in public safety and security emergencies. The vast amount of literature dealing with emergencies includes surprisingly little empirically grounded knowledge of responsibility and decision making transfer in emergency management. The article is based on the case study method in the context of school shootings. The contribution of this article relates to the following findings. Firstly, most of the decision making in an emergency examined is ad hoc and situation driven. Secondly effective operation requires that the on-scene-commanders of different authorities and organizations share the same on-scene-command post or the same situational awareness preferably as real time as possible. Thirdly, the first authority (or the first law enforcement patrol etc.) reaching the scene in a time-critical emergency usually have a paramount role in developing and implementing a solution to the situation. Several management approaches are suggested related to these three findings in order to make responsibility and decision making transfer more efficient and effective in emergency management.