An Investigation of the Role of the Relief Unit in Ensuring the Security of Urban Crises (Case study: Breakdown of Plasco Building in Tehran)

How to deal with natural disasters and control their damages and consequences entail one of the main challenges facing Iranian society these days. The police force is the first governmental unit present at the scene of any event, which, if proper tactful, aware and prepared, can perform its duties well and play its role effectively. This study is aimed at identifying the role of the relief unit in ensuring the security of urban crises (case study: the outbreak of the Plasco building in Tehran) to find out the role of the information relief unit that could lead to security in crises such as the collapse of the Plasco building. This applied research follows a descriptive-survey method. The statistical population includes the commanders and officials of the relief unit involved actively in the Plasco fire through total counting which included 123 people, of which a sample of 60 people was selected. A questionnaire was used to collect data and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient method was used (0.915). Inferential methods including Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests and one-sample t-test were also employed with SPSS software. The results revealed that from the respondents' point of view, the most important factor in providing security in the urban crises regards the performance of the relief unit in the pre-crisis stage, meaning that the most important factor in providing security in the urban crisis center (Plasco building collapse incident) regards the performance of the relief unit in the pre-urban crisis stage (average rating: 4.22). Then, the most important factors in providing security in the center of urban crises include pre-crisis training and exercises, performance of the relief unit during the crisis and after the crisis, recovery and reconstruction phases, respectively.