Purpose
The primary purpose of the Joint Operation Committee is to provide leadership in the research, development and implementation of county wide resource sharing programs which may be applied by multiple agencies.
History
The Joint Operations Committee (JOC) consists of operational personnel and chief officers from Hennepin County departments that work to find a common operating picture. They seek to be informed by the latest information available from member departments, lessons learned and best practices. The committee has created standard operating procedure used by the Hennepin County Sheriffs Office Communications Division and dependent fire departments for communications, including initial paging, incident command, mayday, automatic and mutual aid and other operational issue that impact every department.
The JOC adopted a county-wide resource sharing strategy to incorporate into pandemic planning preparations and other catastrophic events where a severe reduction in available staff may be anticipated.
The Committee has recommended that communities adopt a “robust” form of automatic mutual aid to address reduced staffing. The Committee strongly encourages that the authority having jurisdiction begin a staffing and resource needs assessment, and discuss resource sharing with neighboring communities.
The JOC acts as a resource for local departments to assist with planning and recommend actions, as well as, make available generic boiler plate type planning documents to assist with preparation.
JOC Chair: Deputy Chief Chris Kummer, Maple Grove Fire Department, ckummer@maplegrovemn.gov or 763-494-6303