What Is the Role of a Liaison Officer?
A liaison officer, who is a member of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, is responsible for incidents that are multijurisdictional and works to assist and cooperate with agency representatives for emergencies. The liaison officer is a member of the incident command system at OSHA.
Regardless of the nature of the incident, there will only be one liaison officer attached for each incident. This includes incidents that are multijurisdictional incidents and those that are operating under UC. However, the liaison officer may have assistants as needed.
The liaison officer has specific responsibilities for assisting and cooperating with agency representatives. The liaison officer must be a contact point for agency representatives and must maintain a list of assisting and cooperating agencies as well as agency representatives. The liaison officer must monitor check-in sheets daily to ensure that all agency representatives are present. The liaison officer must assist in coordinating and in establishing interagency contacts as well as keep all agencies supporting the incident aware of the incident’s status. Liaison officers will be responsible for participating in planned meetings and providing current resource status updates, which should include the limitations and active capability of the assisting agency’s resources. The liaison officer will also need to coordinate the activities of visiting dignitaries and maintain an unit or activity log. Finally, the liaison officer is responsible for coordinating the response resource needs for the Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration activities during oil and HAZMAT emergency responses.
