Subscribe to our BlogSecurity in a Disaster: Assessing the Security Response to the Chilean Earthquake
By William Tucker
Two days ago on February 27 an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck at 3:34 a.m. just to the north of Concepcion, Chile. Concepcion is Chile's second-largest city of nearly 900,000 people and is located due south of the capital Santiago. Because Chile is located in an earthquake prone region the government has taken mitigating measures such as implementing strict building codes and constructing an emergency management department. That being said, one thing that has plagued large scale disasters as of late is security.
The Associated Press began reporting on widespread looting in the city of Concepcion yesterday, and in response, the government has deployed 10,000 soldiers to the hardest hit areas to help keep the peace. Unfortunately, initial reports are not promising. In many ways this doesn't come as a surprise since military forces are primarily trained to fight armed conflicts and not serve as civil administrators. Further compounding matters is the lack of security integration in the Incident Command System. It can be argued that the ICS is not meant to contain a security apparatus, and yet getting aid to certain regions would be impossible without a security presence.
In many instances the incident commander and the commander of military forces deployed for security assistance are not the same individual, nor is a clear line of authority defined. In the U.S. on the other hand domestic use of the military, such as the National Guard, is controlled by the State government which also has the responsibility of incident management creating a more ideal situation with better command and control. Members of the U.S. National Guard do engage in disaster response training, but the same cannot be said of federal troops of foreign nations. By all accounts it appears as if this is a factor in the Chilean response which could serve to undermine faith in the government. It is important to remember that while incident management's first priority is the welfare of the afflicted people planning for security cannot be an afterthought in the preparedness process.
