A new employee badge system will soon be in place for the emergency responders of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This new ID system will standardize badges issued to law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, and non-government agencies that are potential responders in emergencies. The new ID program is being put in place to help organize and manage the chaos that often happens at emergency scenes, by creating greater accountability for the emergency responders on the scene.

The new ID badges feature a photo of the person and will indicate their level of clearance within the National Incident Management System, which provides guidelines and policies for actions during a crisis or incident. A barcode located on the front of the badge will hold the qualifications of the ID holder and their basic information. The barcode on the back of the ID will detail medical information and emergency contacts. These new barcodes are an expansion and standardization of emergency responder badges. Firefighter badges previously contained some of the identification information, but it was not encoded in barcodes. The new ID cards for emergency responders feature all the information that is typically included on a driver’s license.
The city equipped themselves with new technology to help them get ready to put the ID system in place including a computer, a camera, specialized ID card printer and a driver’s license reader.
The new emergency responder ID card system will help increase accountability in a profession that is increasingly complex. The new badges will help to keep track of who is on site at emergencies, and will also be useful when it comes to transitioning new emergency responders onto the scene of an accident or incident.