Liaison Work: Building Your Relationship with Local LE, Fire, and EMS

They show up for everyone. They remember the ones who called first.

Local law enforcement, fire, and EMS are obligated to respond to any emergency regardless of whether they have met you before. That is the structure of public safety. It is also why too many organizations treat these agencies as a line in the emergency plan rather than a relationship to build.

The obligation to respond is not the same as the quality of the response. Agencies that know your facility, your leadership, and your security plan respond differently than agencies learning all of that in the middle of an active event. The difference is often measured in minutes, decisions, and outcomes that matter.

What liaison work actually looks like.

Liaison is a set of specific activities, repeated over time, that build a working relationship between an organization and the first responder agencies that would serve it in an emergency.

The introductory meeting

Every liaison relationship starts with a 45 to 60-minute meeting, usually at the organization’s facility. The agenda is simple:

• Introductions between agency staff and organization leadership
• A walkthrough of the facility with specific attention to entry points, response corridors, and mission-critical areas
• A review of the organization's emergency action plan, with input from the agency
• Exchange of current contact information for key personnel on both sides
• Agreement on a recurring rhythm (annual at minimum, quarterly in stronger relationships)

The meeting is low-effort for the organization and high-value for everyone. Most agencies in Lee, Collier, and Charlotte counties will accept this meeting readily, and several have formal programs to support it.

The facility mapping

During or after the walkthrough, the agency often asks to be given (or allowed to sketch) a working map of the facility. This map serves a specific purpose: if the agency is called to respond, the dispatched officers or responders can see the layout in advance.

For organizations participating in programs like CrimeStoppers, CISA’s Shields Ready, or state-level equivalents, this mapping can be formalized. For most organizations, an informal map held by the community relations officer is sufficient.

The shared plan

The organization’s emergency action plan should be shared with the agency, at least in summary form. The agency may have specific feedback on:

• Evacuation routes (some are better than others for LE response)
• Shelter-in-place locations
• Assembly points
• Communication protocols during an incident
• Specific language or terminology that aligns with agency protocols

Plans reviewed by the responding agency are better plans. Full stop.

The recurring check-in

After the initial meeting, a recurring rhythm keeps the relationship current. Annual re-walks. Invitations to tabletop exercises. Periodic coffee. Nothing elaborate. The goal is that when a new officer is assigned to the area, or a new organization leader takes over, the relationship gets reintroduced rather than starting over.

What to ask for.

Agencies have more resources available for community partners than most organizations realize. A non-exhaustive list:

• Facility security walk-through. Typically free, often conducted by a crime prevention specialist.
• Active threat training. Many agencies offer or partner on active shooter, workplace violence, or medical emergency training for community groups.
• Pre-event coordination. For large events (festivals, annual services, fundraisers), the agency can help plan traffic, parking, security presence, and response protocols.
• Cyber awareness briefings. Some agencies, especially sheriff’s offices in larger counties, have cyber units that will brief nonprofits on scam, fraud, and social engineering patterns.
• Post-incident support. After an incident, ongoing coordination on follow-up, victim services, and communication often continues.
• Shield Ready / See Something Say Something program integration. Federal and state programs for threat reporting can be introduced through the agency.

The ask is not unreasonable. These are public-service functions, and most agencies are actively looking for community organizations willing to engage.

Fire and EMS, specifically.

Law enforcement gets most of the attention in security conversations. Fire and EMS are equally important, and often more frequently called.

A typical church, daycare, senior living facility, or nonprofit in Southwest Florida will call EMS for medical emergencies far more often than it will call LE for security events. Fire departments respond to fire alarms, medical calls in some jurisdictions, hazardous material concerns, and severe weather support.

Building liaison with fire and EMS includes:

• Familiarity with the nearest fire station and its staffing patterns
• A walkthrough with fire department personnel focused on evacuation routes, fire system condition, and accessibility for apparatus
• EMS familiarity with on-site medical equipment (AEDs, stop-the-bleed kits, oxygen)
• Coordination on access: can EMS get to every part of the facility quickly?

For senior living facilities especially, EMS liaison is a weekly operational reality, not a once-a-year conversation. The facilities that run it well have named EMS contacts, current facility maps on file with the responding agency, and clear protocols for how staff interact with responders.

The Hurricane Ian coordination lesson.

In the weeks surrounding Hurricane Ian in 2022, Southwest Florida organizations with existing liaison relationships had significant advantages. Lee, Collier, and Charlotte county emergency operations were operating at maximum capacity. Every interaction with a first responder agency was competing for attention.

Organizations with pre-existing contacts had a name and number to call. Organizations without them had to rely on general emergency lines and take their place in a very long queue. The outcomes diverged.

One post-Ian client told us that the single most valuable thing their fDoS relationship had produced was the pre-existing connection to their local sheriff’s office. When they needed facility check-ins during the evacuation period, the request went through a known channel and was handled promptly. Organizations without that channel, in the same position, reported days of uncertainty before they knew their facility was secure.

The proverb celebrates the near neighbor. In a modern operational context, the near neighbor is often the local agency whose relationship has been tended during quiet times. The calamity will come. The tending must happen before it does.

The fDoS version of liaison.

Inside an fDoS engagement, liaison becomes a recurring, tracked activity rather than a sporadic one. The advisor:

• Initiates the introductory meeting with appropriate agencies
• Helps draft the facility information to be shared
• Attends the meetings alongside client leadership
• Maintains contact information for both sides and updates it as staff change
• Scheduled annual re-walks and periodic check-ins
• Facilitates joint tabletop participation where appropriate
• Handles continuity when leadership or agency contacts transition

For organizations without fDoS, the same activities can be done in-house, provided someone in the organization takes explicit ownership. Without an owner, the relationship tends to lapse.

The cost of no relationship.

Organizations without any liaison relationship pay the cost in specific moments.

• When a bomb threat is phoned in, and the organization has no specific contact to call beyond 911
• When a concerning former staff member starts appearing at the facility, and no one at the police department knows the situation’s history
• When a donor’s ex-spouse files a threatening social media post, and law enforcement’s awareness starts from zero
• When a storm is approaching, and the organization has no direct line to county emergency management
• When a neighboring facility has an incident, and the agency has no prior reason to check in with you
• When an incident happens and after-action coordination has to start from introductions

None of these scenarios are hypothetical. All are drawn from real client engagements we have supported in Southwest Florida.

A 30-minute conversation, once a year.

If you take one thing from this article, let it be this. The first conversation with your local sheriff, police department, or fire department takes 30 minutes to arrange and an hour to conduct. It is one of the highest-leverage investments in your security program you can make.

If you operate a church, daycare, senior living facility, or nonprofit in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, or Port Charlotte and you have not had that conversation recently, it is worth scheduling. If you want us to help initiate or run the rhythm as part of an ongoing engagement, we would be glad to.