This article is based on research conducted as a part of the CA POST Command College. It is a futures study of a particular emerging issue of relevance to law enforcement. Its purpose is to project a variety of possible scenarios useful for planning and action in anticipation of the emerging landscape facing policing organizations.
By Captain Thomas N. O’Neal
Talking about disaster preparedness is a lot like talking about life insurance: The less prepared you are for the inevitable, the more difficult the conversation. Although this article focuses on emergency management and policing in small municipalities, its strategies apply to law enforcement agencies of any size. Likewise, while the research draws primarily from California, the insights are relevant nationwide. This article will seek to challenge what your role is in disaster preparedness within your community as well as offering an easy-to-use road map for how you can make your community more resilient in the face of crisis.
Disasters, fires and a growing problem
No one in California can deny that the Golden State has a disaster preparedness problem. Social media and the news cycle are riddled with stories of communities unnecessarily suffering the effects of disasters due to poor preparedness strategies. Emergency declarations in California due to fires have increased nearly 2,000% in the last decade compared to the previous 50 years. [1] This increase in disasters has caused financial losses to skyrocket, from around $400 million annually from 1999–2008 to an average of $2.5 billion annually starting in 2015. [2] These averages do not include the devastating Palisades Fire, which was estimated to cause more than $30 billion in damages. [3] Many communities, like those in the Palisades, barely started the recovery process before barreling into the next fire season. [4] In short, if your agency or neighbor has not been directly impacted by a disaster in the last 10 years, chances are there is a catastrophe on the horizon.
| RELATED: Eight hours inside the Pacific Palisades wildfire
An increase in fires and disasters in California is only one part of the problem. Another emerging issue is the continued nationwide trend of local fire departments moving to almost all-volunteer models. This shift is especially true in smaller municipalities with populations under 25,000. [5] This is concerning when you consider the federal government still considers wildfire and disaster response to require a “bottom-up” approach where local governments are expected to exhaust their resources prior to receiving mutual aid assistance. [6]
California echoes the same requirement both statutorily and through guidance from the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES). [7] Talk to your neighboring fire departments, and most of them will tell you they are fighting against a double-edged sword: an increasing number of fires and disasters coupled with a decreasing amount of funding and volunteers. Then ask them what resources are left over for disaster preparedness and improving community resilience.
CAL FIRE: A rural trend in California
CAL FIRE is California’s statewide fire agency, responsible for protecting people, property and natural resources from all types of hazards. [8] Although CAL FIRE operates at the state level, a growing number of local agencies in California are outsourcing part or all of their fire protection services to the department. As of 2020, this trend was reflected in more than 145 cooperative agreements statewide, including partnerships with 32 cities and 35 fire districts. [9]
A review of the cooperative agreements reveals two relevant issues. First, all the services listed by CAL FIRE involve emergency response services, with no mention of disaster preparedness efforts. Second, more than half the cities contracting services are smaller municipalities with populations less than 50,000. This growing reliance on CAL FIRE for emergency response, especially in smaller, rural communities, raises important questions about who remains responsible for disaster preparedness when local capacity diminishes.
What does this mean for law enforcement?
If disasters are increasing, local fire departments are struggling to stay staffed, and many communities are contracting out emergency response services, where does the responsibility for disaster preparedness fall in these communities? A review of the municipal codes for 10 different municipalities in California with populations under 12,000 revealed that overwhelmingly, city managers are designated as responsible for emergency management and disaster preparation. Notably, none of these cities appeared on CAL FIRE’s contracted services list as of 2020. In short, if you are a law enforcement leader in a small municipality, your city manager likely holds these responsibilities.
Disaster preparedness may not fall directly under law enforcement’s formal responsibilities, but in California and across the country, sheriffs and chiefs often face intense public scrutiny after crises. Regardless of which agency was officially in charge, history shows law enforcement leaders are usually the ones standing behind the podium when local officials explain what went wrong. With such an obvious and predictable situation, what changes has the law enforcement industry made to address the issue? Even more important, what changes has your organization made? We proudly proclaim we are responsible for protecting our communities, but should that shield stop at preventing and responding to crime? In the aftermath of recent tragedies, law enforcement has an opportunity to create a game plan for making their communities more resilient in the face of disaster.
Disaster preparedness may not fall directly under law enforcement’s formal responsibilities, but sheriffs and chiefs often face intense public scrutiny after crises.
What is community resilience?
Community resilience refers to a community’s ability to prepare for, withstand, respond to and recover from disasters or other impactful events (e.g. financial crises, droughts, pandemics). [10] It’s about recognizing and harnessing the already existing potential within your community to harden it against adversity. Over the past decade, definitions of community resilience have varied, but core concepts such as local knowledge, community networks/relationships and preparedness are widely recognized as key factors. [11] Effective community resilience means finding solutions that fit your community’s unique needs, strengths and challenges.
Building community resilience often starts with meeting with organizations, stakeholders and government leaders to identify potential solutions and prevention strategies for current or future issues. Sound familiar? It should, as law enforcement has been using a similar model in community-oriented policing to address issues related to crime since the 1970s and ’80s. For years, our industry has sat down with community leaders and organizations to find innovative solutions related to crime and quality of life. What is stopping us from extending that skill set to increase community resilience and disaster preparedness?
Community meetings that foster personal ownership in crime prevention also present a powerful opportunity to build ownership in community resilience. These gatherings can empower local organizations to take small, strategic actions that enhance their ability to withstand future challenges. Existing partnerships — with schools, faith-based groups and community leaders — can be expanded to reinforce our collective preparedness. The same skill set law enforcement leaders have honed during community-oriented policing efforts for more than three decades can be easily redirected to drive broader change in our communities.
Community meetings that foster personal ownership in crime prevention also present a powerful opportunity to build ownership in community resilience.
First steps to building community resilience
A strong first step in building community resilience is reviewing your organization’s emergency operations plan (EOP). Is it current and easy to understand? When was the last time it was reviewed with stakeholders such as schools, hospitals and the public? Cal OES offers an EOP “crosswalk” checklist of 73 recommended or required items, making it a practical, easy-to-use self-assessment tool for reviewing EOPs. [12]
While Cal OES requires EOPs at the county level to be reviewed and approved by the state, this mandate is not extended to the local level. This means unless your municipality hired a subject matter expert to develop its EOP, it was most likely built using local knowledge and internal resources. If your agency is outside California, at least 20 other states offer templates, checklists or manuals to guide local EOP development. FEMA also provides a national planning guide that helps communities create customized EOPs. [13] These resources are especially useful when existing plans are outdated or obsolete.
Next, take an inventory of nongovernmental resources in your community. Look for organizations that are already the experts in their field. Have a significant senior population in your community? Start a conversation with your local senior center. Unsure who is going to handle food and bottled water distribution after a disaster? Check in with your food bank or local grocery store. Having these conversations not only creates personal ownership in community resilience, but you can be confident you will walk away with ideas, issues or solutions you’d never considered.
As you begin building new relationships in your community, coordinating simple tabletop exercises with your partners can have a myriad of benefits. INTERPOL’s Innovation Centre describes this exercise process as “gamification” and identifies it as effective way to build preparedness through awareness by identifying the capabilities needed to address known threats. [14] These tabletop exercises (TTXs) do not need to be elaborate scenarios with multiple options and choices. Instead, they should represent scenarios relevant to your community or based on past events. Your county’s FEMA-required local hazard mitigation plan is a valuable source for scenario planning. These plans are common nationwide, as FEMA mandates them for eligibility in key emergency management funding programs. [15]
As you begin building new relationships in your community, coordinating simple tabletop exercises with your partners can have a myriad of benefits.
With a scenario in hand and a scribe to record notes, work to get some of these community resources at the same table. From there, most TTXs related to strengthening community resilience can follow a basic game plan:
- Present the scenario.
- Allow for structured discussion focused on three questions:
- What training or relationships do our organizations wish we had developed prior to this scenario occurring?
- What role can your organization play in preventing, mitigating, responding to or recovering from this scenario?
- What are three achievable goals your organization can reach over the course of the next year related to the previous question?
- Formalize these discussions into a public document and share with the involved organizations.
- Finally, and most important: Follow up! Annual or biannual conversations keep the motivation, partnership and ownership growing.
Having one or more individuals with disaster preparedness experience present at these meetings can be helpful but is not required for success.
Next, start a conversation with other law enforcement leaders from communities similar in size to yours. Many of them may have programs you can replicate or can provide lessons learned from past events. These information-sharing networks mean you may not have to recreate the wheel and can reduce staff time related to building community resilience programs. While this step could be completed prior to initial community meetings, there is a risk of reducing community ownership if you show up with a plan already in hand.
An opportunity to harness resilience
Disasters are no longer isolated events; they are a persistent reality for public safety agencies nationwide. To meet their challenge, agencies must shift from a narrow focus on community policing to a broader commitment to community resilience. This transition strengthens public trust, enhances safety and equips communities to withstand both predictable and unforeseen threats.
Concerns about mission creep are understandable, but history offers a compelling precedent. Over the past decade, many law enforcement agencies initially resisted integrating social services into their operations. Yet as the landscape evolved, those same agencies embraced the role, recognizing that proactive engagement allowed them to shape the narrative and better serve their communities. This expansion of the community-oriented policing model to a model for building community resilience represents an opportunity to leverage disaster preparedness approaches instead of simply reacting to them. Embracing community resilience is not about abandoning core law enforcement functions; it’s about recognizing the untapped synergy between them and the broader mission of protecting your community.
References
1. Legislative Analyst’s Office, California State Legislature. Main types of disasters and associated trends. 2019.
2. Buechi H, Weber P, Heard S, et al. Long-term trends in wildfire damages in California. International Journal of Wildland Fire. 2021.
3. Li Z, Yu W. Economic impact of the Los Angeles wildfires. UCLA Anderson School of Management; 2025.
4. Rainey L, Stone E. Six months after January’s fires, recovery is just beginning for many. LAist. 2025.
5. Fahy R, Evarts B, Stein GP. U.S. fire department profile. NFPA; 2022.
6. Legislative Analyst’s Office, California State Legislature. Wildfire response and recovery in California. 2025.
7. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Letter to fire chiefs re. mutual aid practices and procedures. 2022.
8. CAL FIRE. What we do.
9. CAL FIRE Local 2881. Cooperative agreements. 2020.
10. FEMA. Community resilience.
11. Patel SS, Rogers MB, Amlôt R, Rubin GJ. What do we mean by “community resilience”? A systematic literature review of how it is defined in the literature. PLoS Currents. 2017.
12. California Office of Emergency Services. Cal OES emergency plan review crosswalk local government agencies.
13. FEMA. Developing and maintaining emergency operations plans. 2025.
14. INTERPOL Innovation Centre. Crime, law enforcement and climate change. 2022.
15. FEMA. Hazard mitigation plan status. 2025.
About the author
Captain Thomas O’Neal has spent his entire law enforcement career working in a small rural community where disaster preparedness is an inherent part of the job. Serving as the emergency manager for both the city of Fort Bragg, California and local school district, O’Neal has worked to identify innovative approaches to making his community more resilient in the face of disasters.
He spent the last year researching the relationship between law enforcement, disaster preparedness and small rural communities as part of his POST Command College project.
| WATCH: The recent California wildfires underscore the critical role of collaboration, cross-training and technology in strengthening police and fire response to large-scale emergencies
