Page 28 - PCPA Fall 2025 Bulletin Magazine

REDUCING RESPONSE TIME THROUGH SIMPLICITY
Reducing Response Time
Through Simplicity
Why Collaborative Mapping Matters for
Pennsylvania Law Enforcement
By Zach Querry, Critical Response Group
PA CHIEFS OF POLICE ASSOCIATION
Every Pennsylvania chief of police
knows that during a critical incident,
time is the one resource you can never
get back. The decisions your officers
make in the first minutes of a response
can determine outcomes for victims,
responders, and the community at
large. Yet, modern policing operates
in an environment of unprecedented
complexity—new technologies, mu-
tual aid responsibilities, and unfamil-
iar environments that force officers to
make sense of a scene under extreme
stress.
Critical Response Group’s new white
paper, Reducing Response Time
Through Simplicity, tackles this head-
on. The paper makes the case that
the single greatest way to save lives
during an emergency is not by adding
more systems or more data, but by re-
ducing variability and simplifying how
responders understand the space
where an incident is unfolding.
Complexity as the Hidden Threat
Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-
21), issued in 2013, defines the Emer-
gency Services Sector as one of the
nation’s most critical infrastructure
areas. But unlike sectors such as wa-
ter or energy, emergency services are
decentralized and dynamic, spanning
every level of government and often
relying on mutual aid from neighboring
agencies. That diversity of structure
makes coordination difficult, particu-
larly when responders arrive at a loca-
tion they’ve never seen before.
CRG’s research underscores a paradox
most chiefs will recognize: while tech-
nology has promised to make response
easier, it often adds layers of com-
plication. Just as Galileo’s telescope
revealed more stars than observers
could initially comprehend, many mod-
ern response tools introduce complex-
ity rather than clarity. In a crisis, that
added complexity wastes seconds that
victims simply don’t have.
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