Volume 2
Issue 3

When CRJ was launched nearly two years ago, the main intent was to bridge the divide between emergency services and agencies, as well as the public and other stakeholders. We wanted to encourage discourse between those who might be involved in – or affected by – an emergency, and to learn lessons from past events.

This issue is an effective demonstration of our commitment to publishing the broadest panorama of perspectives. A wide collection of articles describes how core emergency services – Police, Fire, EMS – are working and training together in many parts of the world. Furthermore, the issue deals with civil-military relationships, especially during times of war – particularly appropriate given recent events in the Middle East (pp 12, 42), and contains information and discussion from NGOs (38, 58).

Neither is the importance of involving the public overlooked. S K Dogra moots the idea of trained Safety Workers – members of the public trained in elements of intelligence collection, paramedic, bomb detection and rescue skills (p9). And Rosanna Briggs details a British project that engages children in the emergency planning process (18).

To round off, CRJ is delighted to introduce an article on page 68 from the US Department of Homeland Security’s official network – Lessons Learned, Information Sharing. This is to be a regular series, which will look at international incidents as well as the events in the US, and will help us greatly in our quest to help readers learn from the experiences of others.