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A beta testing site for designated professional stakeholders of NCI will be launched in calendar year 2020, and a full launch will follow, pending outcomes of the beta testing. Work is currently underway to fill state and regional NCI cabinet members, and these seated members will be among the designated stakeholders for beta testing.

A 24-7 training and practice site will be available for agencies to create scenarios, assign appropriate access levels, and work through incidents of varied size and complexity. Agencies can apply and adapt NCI for whatever events are likely for their particular area. Using NCI as part of regular exercises will enhance user confidence and help shape response to future events. This will also help agencies meet grant requirements and ease the mind of constituents by demonstrating that responders prepared for incidents and potential problems.

Any NCI registered professional user will be able create incidents in the system and can use NCI to manage incidents in any way that conforms to his/her established Incident Management System.

An incident can be set up and launched to professional users in just a few minutes.

NCI will have an “always on” landing page that registered professionals can access at any time. When an incident occurs, professionals can immediately log in, answer a few questions regarding location and type of incident, and launch the incident for use by fellow professionals directly through the application.

If the incident creator needs to launch a public-facing website, there are a few additional steps regarding configuration and approval, but that is all done at the local level. If the response team has prepared and practiced roles and responsibilities, this can all be done very quickly.

An incident can also be set up in anticipation of an event, such as an impending hurricane. Messaging to professional stakeholders, and even the public, can be circulated in advance.

Critical incidents are typically abrupt, catastrophic events that fall outside the scope of daily experiences and operations, such as accidents, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and disease outbreaks. The immediate and often overwhelming effects of critical incidents are felt across the public sector and wide spectrum of professional responders, driving a need for surge capacity and rallying of resources. Frequently, critical incidents are confounded by confusion, chaos and miscommunication. Reporting of those whose status is unknown, often called unaccounted-for in disasters, as well as those that are accounted for and/or safe, can happen multiple times for the same person in multiple systems, increasing the complexity. Compounding these challenges is the lack of a secure, centralized, online tool for consolidating and sharing information during such events.

NamUs for Critical Incidents is a technology tool currently in development which will:

• Connect law enforcement, medicolegal and emergency management professionals, as well as victims and families during a critical incident.
• Provide real-time information about incidents.
• Help manage, account for, and identify victims of critical incidents.
• Support preparedness through a robust training and exercise site.

Inaccurate and fluctuating victim reporting is a repeating theme in almost every disaster across the country. Compounding these challenges has always been the lack of a single secure, centralized, online tool for consolidating and sharing information during such events. NCI will fill this need by becoming an informational bridge.

For over a decade, the National Institute of Justice's NamUs program has provided technology, forensic services, and investigative support to resolve missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases, while connecting law enforcement, medical examiners, coroners, and other allied forensic specialists across the nation. It became apparent to NamUs leadership that the NamUs 2.0 technology, as well as the existing network of relationships and experience managing and resolving long-term missing and unidentified person cases, could be leveraged to build a new, scalable online system for similar accounting during critical incidents, but in real time.

Like the NamUs 2.0 application, NCI will have no set-up costs, and be a free resource for all U.S. agencies, including small municipalities. There will be no need for installation or new hardware. Information will be secured by professional vetting and sponsorships, usernames and passwords, and “need-to-know” tiered access. Since NCI will be instantly available nationwide, there will be no lag-time between when an incident occurs and when local responders can launch an incident.

Over the past several years, NamUs has consulted with recognized subject matter experts in one – or several – aspect(s) of disaster victim identification, incident response, and preparedness.

In the summer of 2019, NamUs selected a group of stakeholders to form the NamUs Critical Incident Technology Executive Committee (NCI-TEC) to guide the final development of the NCI system. The NCI-TEC consists of members from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the American Red Cross, as well as representatives in the public health sector, medical examiners/coroner offices, emergency services, and law enforcement. Earlier working groups with varied backgrounds included the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Disaster Mortuary Operations Response Team (DMORT), the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Experts in fingerprint examination, forensic odontology, forensic anthropology, and DNA were also consulted.

One of the guiding documents for NCI has been “Mass Fatality Incident Data Management: Best Practice Recommendations for the Medicolegal Authority”. This has been proposed by the Disaster Victim Identification Subcommittee and the Crime Scene/Death Investigation Scientific Area Committee of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC).