NIMS Alert 02-26: Public Safety News from FEMA
FEMA and its partners released a new study that provides key insights into challenges faced by emergency managers across the nation. The Emergency Management Organizational Structures, Staffing, and Capacity Study confirms that America’s emergency management system is strongest when it is locally led, state managed and federally supported. The study surveyed over 1,700 emergency management officials nationwide and found that local and state agencies are best positioned to understand and address the unique needs of their communities.
“Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Mullin, FEMA is focused on empowering state, local, tribal and territorial governments to lead through all phases of emergency management,” said FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton. “This study makes clear that a one-size-fits-all, federally driven approach will never be as effective as community-led efforts. FEMA will continue to partner with officials at every level of government, empowering them to build local capabilities and invest in resilience efforts.”
FEMA sponsored the study to better understand the emergency management landscape across the nation, including in cities, suburbs, rural areas and within tribal nations. The report summarizes quantitative and qualitative data from survey responses and interviews across 1,689 local jurisdictions, 37 states, 59 tribal nations and four territories.
The report finds that local emergency management agencies are critical to our nation’s resilience, but it also finds that those organizations are typically understaffed and underfunded. This finding reinforces the vision outlined in President Trump’s America First Resilience Strategy, which calls for state and local governments to develop and maintain capacity to effectively manage incidents affecting their communities.
For decades, many states have relied excessively on federal grants to maintain emergency response capabilities—to their own detriment. To strengthen their resilience against disasters and emergencies, states, tribal nations, territories and local jurisdictions should consistently invest in their own emergency management capabilities.
This study was funded by FEMA and conducted by Argonne National Laboratory. Big City Emergency Managers (BCEM), the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM-USA) and the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) also collaborated on the study.
In addition to publishing the study’s findings as a report, FEMA worked with the Argonne National Laboratory to launch the National Emergency Management Data Explorer (NEMDEX) tool. This tool is available to help review and analyze the summary information gathered from the local survey component of the study. Community leaders can review the findings to make informed, strategic decisions on investment and capacity building efforts.
To view the report and access the NEMDEX tool, please visit the Argonne National Laboratory website.