Answer: It is axiomatic that a police department is charged at all times
with the duty of preserving life and property. Such a responsibility
not only requires the proper and effective handling of routine
problems, but, in particular, it requires the planning and adoption
of forceful techniques of enforcement in the event that disaster
or emergency arises. This is true in times of peace. It is vital in
times of war. Fire, storm and flood, industrial hazards, subversive
activities . . . these count among the many catastrophies and
disasters which may overtake a city. In anticipation of them, it is
the alert police department which has already formulated plans
in advance whereby all its available resources can be instantly
utilized for the general welfare of its people.
When disaster arises, one of the most difficult and yet important
tasks of the police is to keep the channels of transportation and
communication open. If these are clogged, the entire program for
combating the disaster is imperiled. It is the purpose of this
article to set forth in broad details how one of our largest police
departments-that of Los Angeles, California-has developed a
plan of deployment of traffic personnel during disaster emergency.
Since emergency traffic control during peacetime disasters (such
as floods or earthquakes) and that necessitated during wartime
differ principally in the size of the area affected, it is deemed
expedient at this time to consider the problem in its larger wartime
phases.