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Post-Incident Response:
A Guide for the Incident Commander Following a Major Incident
BY LT. JOHN KAVANAUGH, CORCORAN STATE PRISON
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has made tremendous strides in establishing a comprehensive alarm response procedure for all institutions. The Oct. 25, 2000, Restricted Administrative Bulletin, 00-7R, provides policy guidelines for Code 1, Code 2, and Code 3 responses.
All employees now receive initial and annual training in the Alarm Response Plan. Our responders are supplied specific equipment to carry to the assembly areas. Area supervisors now capably assemble and direct tactical formations. They can assess the effectiveness of tactics and deployed equipment. Review of submitted CDCR 837s, Crime/Incident Reports, reflects most incident responses are nearly textbook up to the conclusion of the alarm. Yet, no formal course of action has been provided for our incident commanders regarding their responsibilities in the aftermath of an incident.
The announcement of the Code 4 means the facility lieutenant's real work has just started. Great care shall be given to ensure the directly-involved members' safety and well being. Use of a firearm, injury to a staff member by an inmate, an inmate's use of a weapon, and serious bodily injury to an inmate require notifications to the Investigative Services Unit and the watch commander. Involved inmates must be identified, decontaminated for their exposure to chemical agents, and medically examined. The crime scene and all evidence needs to be preserved and processed. Large scale incidents, such as riots, require the utilization of a scribe to record all inmates' locations in the incident area.
Staff involvement as Primary, Responder, Witness, Victim and/or Camera must be identified. Existing and potential inmate enemy concerns must be recognized. The involved inmates should be held accountable and charged for their specific acts committed during the incident.
In addition, holding cell procedures must be followed. A videotaped interview must be conducted if an inmate receives a blow to the head, serious injury (unless clearly caused by another inmate), or makes an allegation of inappropriate use of force. The laborious segregation process, to include locating Central Files, completion of the segregation forms, property inventories, and escorts of the involved inmates is initiated. The facility lieutenant must network with the facility captain or the administrative officer of the day for any modifications to the facility program. Plata and Coleman escorts should resume as soon as practicable. Feeding of the uninvolved general population inmates cannot be long delayed, and another institutional count is always looming.
The extensive list of the usual facility chores, coupled with the numerous tasks caused by a major incident, can paralyze the novice incident commander and even overwhelm the grizzled veteran. Unnecessary overtime expenditures, disinformation to institution managers, and needless extended modified programs are resultant of slipshod post-incident management.
Real-time information gathering by the incident supervisor(s) immediately after an incident is vital. The incident commander, as well as institution managers, needs to know the ethnicity, gang affiliation, and specific numbers of inmates involved in an incident. Appropriate segregation housing cannot be obtained without this information. An incident worksheet completed by an incident supervisor provides accurate information necessary for the completion of the CDCR-B2, Staff Information, assists in staff accountability, and serves as a self-audit tool to ensure all reports are received.
Department Operations Manual (DOM) Section 51030.1, defines staff responsibility and provides procedures and criteria for reporting incidents. Institutions have generated DOM supplements to provide further guidance regarding reportable incidents. Memorandums from the Deputy Director's Office, Division of Adult Institutions, provide direction that the institution watch commander or facility lieutenant in charge of a specific area are responsible for the preparation of the complete incident report. The CDCR 837 is designed to be only a synopsis of the incident that occurred. The responsibility for greater in-depth detail is that of involved staff, via their CDCR 837-C, Supplemental Reports. Although the sergeant customarily reviews the reports (837-C) of staff members involved in the incident, the lieutenant is ultimately responsible for ensuring the completion of all reports.
The submitted Part C, coupled with staff members' verbal reports, is the basis for the CDCR 837-A and A1. The incident commander is held accountable for completion of the CDCR 837 within 24 hours. It is imperative that staff generate their Part C, Staff Report, as soon as practicable. In most cases, the reports shall be generated before the end of the shift in which the incident took place. These reports are essential in order to correctly assess serious incidents and make informed decisions regarding incident management. Part Cs not considered essential to the incident should be completed within 24 hours of the actual incident. It is incumbent upon the supervising sergeant to ensure all reports are in the correct format and reviewed for content prior to signing his/her approval. Additionally, the reports must be reviewed individually and collectively to avoid needless future clarification requests.
The arbitrary, verbatim used of the primary staff member's Part C for copy onto the Circumstances Section of the CDCR 115 is a leading cause of difficulties in the disciplinary process after an incident. The primary staff member's report often does not contain all the elements necessary for a fully accurate report. Incomplete or missing evidence can result from the incident commander's failure to grasp that disciplinary reports must be directed toward accurately describing evidence to support a disciplinary offense, rather than simply reporting the primary staff member's involvement in the incident. In other words, the Part C alone can often be insufficient for a finding of guilty from a disciplinary hearing. For this reason, the primary staff member need not be the reporting employee. Who better than the incident commander to author the disciplinary report? The incident commander can provide all evidence about the offense including but not limited to description of weapons, thorough narrative of the victim's injuries and subsequent receipt of reliable confidential information.
The experienced facility lieutenant does not wait for completion of the CDCR 837 packet to initiate the inmate disciplinary process.
Any delay interrupts the classification process, impedes potential district attorney referrals, and leaves inmates to needlessly languish in valuable segregation beds.
The CDCR 837 is the vehicle through which reportable incidents are conveyed to Sacramento ID and Warrants Unit, and other interested parties. The CDCR 837, to include all supplemental reports, is used in court proceedings and thoroughly scrutinized by defense attorneys, district attorneys, and members of the jury. The CDCR 837-C is the basis of the involved staff member's courtroom testimony. The legitimacy of the CDCR 837 is dependent upon the incident commander's methodical review of the written reports submitted by involved staff members. The incident commander's role in the 837 process is not complete until all disciplinary reports are adjudicated and/or court proceedings are concluded.
Lieutenant John Kavanaugh is an 18-year veteran with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation; 14 of those years at Corcoran State Prison.
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