The Medical Intelligence Officer

Many jurisdictions are charged with protection and oversight of mass-assembly events. These events can range from college and professional football games to parades or marathons and everything in between. It is always a challenge to provide the types of emergency medical services required, as the planning and deployment can be expansive. In a post-9/11 world, we must all be acutely aware of the proper planning, communications and relationships that go into a safe, successful event.

On February 1, Tampa hosted one of the world's most popular sporting events, the Super Bowl. The city had hosted three previous Super Bowls, but this was the first since 9/11. On the heels of a presidential election and at a time of great global and domestic upheaval, Super Bowl XLIII would provide its own unique challenges.

Like many departments, Tampa Fire Rescue has for years utilized the Incident Command System. In 2005, city emergency management was realigned under Tampa Fire Rescue and Chief Dennis Jones. This provided a stable base from which to apply the concepts of emergency management and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) across a range of stakeholders, including local, state and federal partners. With planned events of this magnitude, it is common to be designated a National Special Security Event (NSSE), and this was the case for Super Bowl XLIII. When a NSSE designation is given, it denotes special linkages and responsibilities, including for the local government to interact with partners at the local, state and federal levels.

In a large-scale planned event, the term operational intelligence is commonly associated with law enforcement, and indeed law enforcement was the lead agency in Tampa. But for Super Bowl XLIII, Tampa Fire Rescue was going to build on that operational intelligence concept with the position of Medical Intelligence Officer (MIO). In reality, the MIO concept is not new, but its application is widely varied. The key is to understand the value of the MIO position and to bring awareness, implementation and change to other stakeholders in the event. The challenge for Tampa Fire Rescue was to integrate the MIO position within the established command structure to reap the best benefits possible. We've all heard the adage "Establish your relationships prior to the incident"--truly words to live by; having established relationships prior to planning and executing an event of worldwide significance helps tremendously.

For the MIO position to be successful, it was clear to us early on that information-sharing had to be a priority, and during the planning phase we built on that concept, focusing on developing a solid process for it. As planning progressed, questions arose. We asked ourselves, "What will it look like? Will it complement the unified command structure we've established?" The answers were for the respective agencies to resolve, but for Tampa Fire Rescue they centered on a few very important concepts.

Secret Security Clearance

Due to the sensitivity of the issues and materials discussed, our fire rescue personnel had to have secret security clearances. These were required to ensure our law enforcement counterparts, both local and federal, were able to exchange information. In our case, five individuals received security clearances. At any time at least three of them were on duty.

Personnel Requirements

It was clear we needed someone assigned to the MIO position who had a strong medical background but also commensurate command and control experience--in short, a chief officer. Additionally, our requirements included operational experience as a hazardous-materials technician and WMD training and operations. These requirements were extremely important, as the person(s) assigned would be working in a time-compressed environment as particular intelligence was vetted. It was vital that they had the skill sets to facilitate sharing appropriate, functional information and knowledge with our local and federal law enforcement counterparts. As we narrowed the list, we identified several chief officers who met our benchmarks.