IN KENTUCKY:  A FOCUS ON LAW ENFORCEMENT, HOMELAND 
SECURITY, NIMS AND ICS

RICHMOND, KY – The Kentucky Law Enforcement Council has developed a strategy that could serve as a 
model for other states and local jurisdictions as they work toward meeting the National Incident Management 
System (NIMS) compliance requirements for this federal fiscal year, which ends Sept.30, 2006. 

This effort will result in all of Kentucky’s approximately 12,000 law enforcement officers completing NIMS 
and ICS-100 and -200 training with the help of the state’s Department of Criminal Justice Training (DOCJT). 

When Kentucky says law enforcement officers, it means all enforcement officers – municipal city police officers, sheriffs and deputies for the state’s 120 counties, Fish and Wildlife officers, Park Rangers and tate Police Troopers. 

By law, these officers must complete 40-hours of training annually. And this year, all 40 hours focus on 
homeland security, with a full day on the Incident Command System. Completion of IS-700 NIMS, An 
Introduction, is a prerequisite to the week-long training. The ICS training is NIMS-compliant and officers 
will receive credit for completing both ICS-100 and -200.

While some Kentucky officers with enforcement powers and authority are not specifically required to 
participate in the training, most do so voluntarily, including officers attached to agencies such as Gaming 
Enforcement, Alcohol Beverage Control, Insurance Investigation and Fraud and the Attorney General’s 
Investigative Branch. 

“With homeland security issues at the forefront of the nation’s consciousness, the state of Kentucky and the 
Department of Criminal Justice Training realized that mandatory NIMS training for all law enforcement 
officers is essential to the safety and security of the Commonwealth,” DOCJT Commissioner John Bizzack 
said. “This form of mandatory training is a proactive step in ensuring that Kentucky’s officers are prepared to 
handle any threat and have the tools necessary to keep Kentucky’s communities safe.”

DOCJT also is providing a two-day course including the eight-hour block of Incident Command along with a 
condensed version of some of the other topic areas, to all Coroners and their Deputy Coroners. The Kentucky 
State Police, Lexington Police and Louisville Metro Police all have training units in their respective agencies, 
and they will utilize the 40-hour DOCJT curriculum to train their own officers.  

For more information, contact Larry Tousignant at Larry.Tousignant@ky.gov.  



NIMS Smart Practices: 01-06
NIMS Integration Center, March 20, 2006
NIMS-Integration-Center@dhs.gov
202-646-3850


www.fema.gov/nims