Alabama Law Enforcement Agencies and Departments:

   As regional recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina continue, you may be contacted directly from law enforcement activities in other states, specifically Mississippi and Louisiana, seeking your assistance with law enforcement duties in their jurisdictions.  Please do not send or commit any manpower or equipment without prior approval from the State Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Clanton.

   Requests for Alabama law enforcement support from other states will be received and processed in Clanton through the Emergency Mutual Aid Compact and assigned a valid mission number.  If you elect to send law enforcement officers to other states without a valid mission number, your officers risk deploying without pay, insurance, and arrest powers.  Additionally, you may put Alabama at an additional risk by committing law enforcement assets we may need for missions in our state.

   If you want to volunteer manpower and equipment to assist neighboring states, please notify the EOC in Clanton and tell them what you have available.  The EOC will keep a list of law enforcement agencies and assets available for deployment.  When a valid and verifiable request is received matching what you have available, you will be contacted by the EOC with specific guidance and information.

   If you need additional information, please contact the EOC Operations Desk at 205-280-2402, or my office at 334-956-7250.  Thank you for your hard work and commitment as we cope with this disaster in our region.

Sincerely,


Jim Walker

Keeping track of who, where, what is available is very important. I read the analysis of the WTC/Pentagon report, and people just rushed toward the WTC, which resulted in the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. Hopefully we don't repeat that mistake.

Good to you folks down in the Gulf States.