HD23 - Hampton Roads Automatic Aid Between Emergency Services Part II


Executive Summary:
This report is being provided to the General Assembly pursuant to House Joint Resolution (HJR) 155. HJR 155 directed the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission to “review the emergency responses of localities of the Hampton Roads region, including responses across jurisdictional lines” over a two year period and to produce two reports. The first report was submitted to the General Assembly in December 2008. This report will satisfy the two part study requirement.

Both reports were developed following a series of interviews with representatives from fire, law enforcement, EMS, and 911 dispatch agencies within the Hampton Roads region that focused on the usage and implementation of automatic and mutual aid operations. This report is organized in such a way that it incorporates the first report with the second report in order to provide the appropriate background information. However, the section titled ‘Review of Additional Mutual and Automatic Interdependencies’ is an expansion of the previous report.

The interviews and follow-up meetings determined that Hampton Roads fire departments actively use both automatic and mutual aid and with the exception of the City of Virginia Beach are also responsible for EMS response. Law enforcement agencies do not use automatic aid except in cases of pursuit across jurisdictional lines; however, resources are shared through mutual aid. Local 911 dispatch centers do not direct the use of mutual or automatic aid; rather, the decision is left to the first responder agencies and the dispatch centers facilitate the process the best way possible.

The conclusion of the report supports the previous report that no legislative action is required to facilitate automatic or mutual aid among fire, emergency medical services (EMS), 911 dispatch agencies, or law enforcement. Subsequently, law enforcement agencies are continuing to review alternative mutual aid formats that would offer all the legal protection and guarantees of service while minimizing the cumbersome nature of the mutual aid agreement.