Critical Incidents

Course Description

CJK0092 – Critical Incidents is a 44-hour law enforcement training course carrying zero credit hours. It covers the events that exceed routine patrol response — active assailant incidents, hostage and barricaded subject situations, natural disasters, hazardous materials releases, mass casualty events, and civil unrest.

These are, by definition, rare. That is precisely why they are trained: an officer may work years without encountering one, and will then have minutes to act correctly on training received long before.

The organizing framework is the Incident Command System under NIMS — command establishment and transfer, division and group assignment, span of control, unified command with fire and EMS, and the accountability systems that track personnel. Recruits are not trained as incident commanders, but must understand the structure and operate within it.

Active assailant response is the content that has changed most in recent years, and the change is fundamental: contemporary doctrine directs the first officers on scene to move toward the threat immediately rather than establish a perimeter and await tactical teams. That doctrine emerged from analysis of incidents in which delay cost lives, and it places extraordinary demands on individual officers.

The course also covers hostage and barricaded subject situations and the patrol officer's containment role; hazardous materials awareness and the recognition-and-isolate response; mass casualty incidents including triage principles; natural disasters, with Florida's hurricane exposure treated concretely; and civil disturbance.

Post-incident content covers scene preservation, investigation support, and critical incident stress — the psychological consequences of these events for the officers who work them.

The course is offered at approximately 15 Florida institutions with law enforcement training centers.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Recognize a critical incident and initiate an appropriate initial response.
• Describe the Incident Command System and the officer's position within it.
• Establish and transfer incident command as the first arriving officer.
• Communicate accurate situation information and request appropriate resources.
• Apply current active assailant response doctrine, including immediate movement toward the threat.
• Describe casualty care and rescue task force concepts in an active threat environment.
• Apply containment principles in a hostage or barricaded subject situation.
• Describe the patrol officer's role pending arrival of tactical and negotiation resources.
• Recognize hazardous materials indicators and apply recognize-isolate-notify procedures.
• Apply mass casualty triage principles within the scope of training.
• Describe natural disaster response including hurricane operations and evacuation support.
• Describe civil disturbance response and the escalation to specialized units.
• Apply unified command principles when working with fire, EMS, and other agencies.
• Preserve a critical incident scene for subsequent investigation.
• Describe critical incident stress, its effects, and available support resources.

Optional Outcomes

• Complete FEMA independent-study ICS courses (IS-100, IS-700).
• Describe school-specific active assailant response and the Florida school safety framework.
• Describe explosive device recognition and response.
• Describe mutual aid and statewide emergency response coordination.
• Participate in a full-scale or tabletop exercise.
• Describe after-action review and organizational learning.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Defining critical incidents — recognition and the transition from routine response.
• Incident Command System and NIMS — structure, command transfer, span of control, and unified command.
• Initial response — the first arriving officer's priorities and decisions.
• Communication — situation reporting, resource requests, and interoperability.
• Active assailant response — current doctrine, immediate action, and the reasoning behind it.
• Casualty care and rescue task force — integrating medical response into an active threat scene.
• Hostage and barricaded subjects — containment, communication, and specialized resource response.
• Hazardous materials — recognition, isolation, notification, and the awareness-level role.
• Mass casualty incidents — triage principles and scene organization.
• Natural disasters — hurricane operations, evacuation support, and post-storm response.
• Civil disturbance — assessment, response, and escalation.
• Scene preservation — protecting evidence in a chaotic environment.
• Critical incident stress — effects, peer support, and available resources.

Optional Topics

• FEMA ICS coursework.
• School safety and the Florida framework.
• Explosive device recognition.
• Mutual aid and statewide coordination.
• Full-scale and tabletop exercises.
• After-action review.

Resources & Tools

• CJSTC curriculum — the state lesson plan; authoritative for content and testing.
• FEMA / NIMS Incident Command System — IS-100 and IS-700 are freely available and used by many Florida agencies.
• Florida Division of Emergency Management — hurricane preparedness and state emergency response.
• ALERRT (Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training) — the national standard for active assailant response training.
• Emergency Response Guidebook — hazardous materials recognition and initial isolation distances.
• Florida school safety requirements — state framework following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act.
• Agency emergency operations plans and scenario exercises.
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, agency employee assistance, and peer support — resources the course should name explicitly.

Career Pathways

• Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officer (SOC 33-3051) — patrol officers are the first response to every critical incident.
• SWAT / Tactical Team member — a selective specialization requiring additional training.
• Crisis Negotiator — specialized training following patrol experience.
• School Resource Officer — a substantial Florida assignment category with specific active-threat responsibilities.
• Emergency Management — county and municipal emergency operations, where ICS transfers directly.
• Supervisory ranks — sergeant and above, with direct incident command responsibility.

Special Information

⚠ Two parallel CJK numbering series exist — verify before evaluating a transcript

This is the most important caution attached to this course. Florida law enforcement training centers do not all use the same course numbers, and courses with identical or near-identical titles carry different numbers and different hour counts. Broward College's catalog documents both series:

Several components are shared across both series and carry the same number in each — CJK0031C First Aid (40), CJK0040C Firearms (80), CJK0051 Defensive Tactics (80), CJK0096 Officer Physical Fitness (60), and CJK0016 Communication (24).

The practical rule: anyone performing equivalency evaluation — including military credit evaluation — must work from the course number and hour count shown on the transcript, never from the course title. CJK0064 is not CJK0063, and the 5-hour difference is real.

Certification

Completing this course does not certify anyone. Recruits must finish the full academy, pass the State Officer Certification Examination (SOCE), and satisfy the employment and background requirements of Chapter 943, Florida Statutes. Certification is granted by CJSTC, not by the college, and an officer must also be employed by an agency to be certified.

Admission

Requirements attach to the academy rather than to this individual course: minimum age 19, U.S. citizenship, high school diploma or equivalent, no felony convictions or disqualifying misdemeanors, a background investigation, a physical examination and drug screening, and a passing score on the Florida Basic Abilities Test (CJBAT).

Zero credit, and it does not count toward a degree

All CJK courses are clock-hour criminal justice training carrying zero credit hours. They do not count toward an associate degree. Several Florida colleges award block credit toward an A.S. in Criminal Justice Technology for full academy completion plus certification, under local articulation agreements rather than statewide SCNS equivalency. The academic counterparts are the CCJ courses, which are transferable college credit.

Active assailant doctrine changed, and the change is the point

Contemporary response doctrine directs first-arriving officers to move immediately toward the threat rather than establish a perimeter and wait for a tactical team. This reverses earlier practice, and it emerged from analysis of incidents where delay cost lives. Florida has particular reason to take this seriously, and the state's school safety framework following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act imposes specific requirements on agencies and school resource officers. Recruits should understand that this is doctrine grounded in incident analysis, not preference, and that it asks something genuinely difficult of individual officers.

Hazardous materials training here is awareness level

Officers are trained to recognize, isolate, and notify — not to intervene. The awareness-level role is deliberate: entering a hazardous materials scene without appropriate training and protective equipment adds a casualty rather than resolving anything. The Emergency Response Guidebook and initial isolation distances are the working tools.

Critical incident stress is an occupational reality

Officers who work these incidents experience predictable psychological consequences, and the profession's handling of that has improved substantially. The course covers critical incident stress, peer support programs, employee assistance, and confidential resources, and frames using them as professional practice rather than weakness. Florida agencies increasingly operate peer support teams, and the 988 line is available at any hour. Recruits should know these exist before they need them.

Rare events, trained anyway

The justification for 44 hours on incidents most officers never encounter: when one occurs, there is no time to learn. Decisions are made in seconds, under conditions of extreme stress, and they will be examined in detail afterward by people with unlimited time. Training is the only thing that makes correct action available in the moment.