Preparing for Chaos: What to Expect During Critical Incidents

During my two and a half decades in law enforcement, I was involved in countless critical incidents. As a K9 handler and supervisor, my primary role was to respond to the most intense and stressful calls and work toward a successful resolution.

Each call was unique, presenting different challenges that we had to overcome both operationally and mentally. Although every situation was different, they all had one thing in common:

They all started with chaos.

It doesn’t matter whether the critical incident involves a single suspect barricaded in an apartment or an active assailant, there will always be a level of chaos that must be navigated. Officers often experience a rapid onset of chaos caused by a lack of intelligence, overwhelming circumstances, and sometimes a breakdown in command and control. These factors can leave officers feeling overwhelmed and impair their performance.

First responders must be prepared to handle chaos, both tactically and emotionally.

This preparation starts by rethinking how we approach training. (I wrote a blog about training for chaos—you can read it here.)

Chaos isn’t experienced by officers alone. Leadership must also be ready for the overwhelming flood of information and the high-stakes decisions they will face during critical incidents. Here are just a few examples:

• There will be an influx of conflicting information from multiple sources (dispatch, officers, other leaders).

• Officers will rush to the scene, leading to an overconvergence of resources. This can restrict access for medical teams or additional tactical units by blocking critical ingress routes.

• Communication will always be strained. Environmental factors, such as crowd noise, can prevent clear communication between officers and leadership.
  

These factors, combined with the inherent stress of managing an incident, compound the amount of chaos a leader will experience during critical events.

Leadership at all levels is the key to calming chaos.

Whenever there is a large-scale incident with multiple victims and witnesses, officers must also be prepared for ghost calls. During the two mass shooting incidents I was involved in, ghost calls occurred at both.

In these situations, victims who were hurt, scared, and fleeing the scene sought refuge in nearby businesses. In the confusion and fear, those businesses called 911 and reported active shooters at their locations. During the 1 October incident, teams were dispatched to multiple locations to address these ghost calls.

When I served as the incident commander during the active shooter at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, I anticipated this. When the ghost calls started coming in, I made the decision not to divert resources. Instead, we continued to send officers to the main building where the shooting had occurred.

Although it was not an easy decision, especially knowing that any of those calls could have been real, it was the correct one.

The reality of critical incidents is that chaos is inevitable. From the initial confusion and lack of information to the overwhelming flood of details and broken communication, officers and leadership alike face a barrage of challenges. But with the right training, you can learn to manage these situations with clarity and resilience.

That's where our Police Resiliency and Critical Incident Mindset Training comes in. Whether online or in-person, this course is designed to help officers develop the mental fortitude and strategic mindset necessary to thrive in chaotic, high-stress situations.

By learning how to handle the chaos before it happens, officers can not only perform better in the moment but also recover stronger after the fact. This course offers firsthand experience and proven strategies to ensure that your team is always prepared for the unexpected.

Ready to take control of chaos? Learn more about the course or sign up today by clicking this link.