Command and control
Operations — Authorised Professional Practice
Summary
This page outlines the concept of command and control within policing, emphasizing its authority and capability to manage personnel and resources during various incidents. It highlights the scalability of command and control principles, which can be applied to situations ranging from local community events to large-scale operations like multi-seated terrorist attacks. The necessity of establishing a dedicated command structure for specific incidents is addressed. Additionally, it acknowledges that emergency incidents may involve multi-agency responses, in which partners adhere to established interoperability principles.
Key principles
- 1Scalability of command and control principles
- 2Authority to manage personnel and resources
- 3Established command structures for specific incidents
- 4Multi-agency response considerations
- 5Adherence to Joint Emergency Service Interoperability Principles (JESIP)
Defined terms
- Joint Emergency Service Interoperability Principles (JESIP)
- Principles that guide multi-agency emergency responses.
Full guidance
This page is from APP, the official source of professional practice for policing.
The police service deals with a wide range of incidents and operations that are typically resolved by deploying available resources. There are, however, certain incidents or operations where the police response requires a different approach and it may be necessary to establish a dedicated command structure. Command and control is the authority and capability of an organisation to direct the actions of its personnel and the use of its equipment.
The principles of command and control are scalable. They can be used to resolve incidents and operations ranging in size and scope, from the policing of a local community event to a major criminal investigation such as a multi-seated terrorist attack requiring the mobilisation of several police forces.
The incident may be part of a wider multi-agency response and have far-reaching consequences, in which case partners will follow the Joint Emergency Service Interoperability Principles (JESIP)(opens an external website in the same tab) .
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Read the full APP guidanceSource: College of Policing — Authorised Professional Practice · Crown copyright, licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0. Summary fetched 2026-06-27.