2009 NTNS Research Brief: Law Enforcement
In 2009, RDPC conducted its second National Training Needs Survey. The survey targeted a random sample of individuals from eight disciplines representative of the rural emergency response community: Emergency Management Agency Personnel (EMAP); Emergency Medical Services (EMS); Fire Services (FS); Governmental Administrative (GA); Healthcare/Public Health (HCPH); Law Enforcement (LE); Public Safety Communications (PSC); and Public Works/Public Utilities (PWPU).
This research brief presents a discussion of the finding of unmet training needs among rural law enforcement officers in the area of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) emergencies. Rural law enforcement officers must be well trained to detect CBRNE materials and respond to and decontaminate a WMD incident or HAZMAT release. A discussion of how this finding relates to the overall goals of homeland security training for law enforcement officers in rural communities will also be presented to the reader.
