Command and control is used by the uniformed public services to deal effectively with many situations. An example would be a plane crash, it would require proper command and control in order for the emergency services to respond quickly and efficiently to the recovery operation. The armed forces also rely on command and control for successful military exercises, especially in war situations. The reason that the armed forces would use and rely on command and control is because they would need someone such as the commander there to lead them in the tasks.
With command and control, the countless activities a military force must perform gain purpose and direction. If command and control is done poorly, it can causes disaster, even against the weakest of enemy. Command and control helps commanders to make the most of whatever equipment they have - people, information, material, and, often most important of them all, time.
Command and control could be used to exercise authority and directions by a fully designated commander over assigned and attached forces in the achievement of a task. Command and control functions are performed through an arrangement of personnel, equipment, communication, facilities, and procedures employed by a commander in planning, directing, coordinating, and controlling forces and operations in the accomplishment of the mission. This is important so that the team would know who is in command and also so that the commander shows his authority within the team and that they all are able to work together as a team.
A example of command and control being used in a good way is how the public services controlled the situation at the time of the London bombings in July 05. The uniformed public services were able to get everything under control and were able to sort the situation out together. The police forces were controlling the public from entering certain areas whilst the other uniformed services like the ambulance and fire brigade were helping the injured people out of the trains and buses. The London bombings can also be used as a bad example of command and control due to the commissioner ordering the police to shoot and kill an innocent person thinking that the person was a terrorist.
A bad example of command and control being used is at a match between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool, which is known as the Hillsborough disaster, which ended in 96 deaths. The result was that an arrival of thousands of fans through a narrow passageway, which was at the back of the terrace and into the two already-overloaded central pens, which caused a massive squash at the front of the terrace, where people were being pressed up against the fencing by the weight of the crowd behind them. The fans had to climb over the fence to the safety of the pitch from being crushed to death.
The disaster was caused by a steward opening a side gate to let out someone when he shouldn’t have opened it. This caused the fans with and without tickets being able to run into the caged stand. With an estimated 5 thousand fans all trying to get though the turnstiles, an increasing security concern of over crushing outside the turnstile gates, the police opened a set of gates to try and avoid deaths outside the ground, intended as an exit, which did not have turnstile dates. This caused a rush of supporters through the gate into the stadium.
The command and control in the Hillsborough disaster was really bad because the police were actually watching the fans enter the stand and not stopping them. The people who were crushed were visible in front of the police, who were at that moment beating the fans with their batons so the fans don’t climb over the cage and into the pitch to safety from being crushed. The Hillsborough disaster showed that higher ranked officers could also make bad decisions.
