An Exploratory Study of Local Emergency Managers' Views of Military Assistance/Defense Support to Civil Authorities (MACA/DSCA)

Milliman John, Grosskopf John and Paez Ozzie E
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Milliman John: University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Grosskopf John: Environmental Resources Engineering, Inc.
Paez Ozzie E: Simplicity Data Systems, Inc.

Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 2006, vol. 3, issue 1, 19

Abstract: The Defense Support to Civil Authorities (DSCA) (formerly titled Military Assistance to Civil Authorities or MACA) process is intended to provide local and State civil authorities with access to Federal military assets in response to major terrorist attacks or natural disasters. Effective coordination between the military and local civilian emergency managers (EMs) is one essential requirement for successful DSCA engagements.This paper reports the results of an exploratory study of local EMs' understanding of the DSCA process, their ability to trigger support under DSCA and their views of how well they expect to collaborate with the military. The survey research results indicate that a majority of EMs believe that they do have the authority to initiate the DSCA process and have the ability to tell military authorities the type of assistance they require. However, our research suggests that a majority of the EMs do not have a strong understanding of the various aspects of the DSCA process, do not believe that DSCA will be implemented effectively in the future, and have a number of concerns about how the military support would be provided. We conclude with implications for future research directions on DSCA.

Keywords: emergency managers; defense support; military assistance; civil authorities; disaster response; coordination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.2202/1547-7355.1205

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