Texas Line of Duty Death Task Force
The Texas Line of Duty Death Task Force was created to assist departments and families when the worst has happened. Our mission is to provide assistance, support, comfort and care in a dignified and transparent way that will leave a lasting impression that is both positive and healing with those we serve. The work that we do is difficult but rewarding; and this Task Force could not operate without the many individuals who come from all walks of life but have one thing in common: serving the families and departments who are experiencing such a difficult tragedy.
The Task Force is made up of chief officers, company officers, rank and file members, honor guard, band members, chaplains, survivors, and other community members who have experience with the emergency services and some form of support service such as mental health, financial and legal services. Our members come from small, large, paid, volunteer, and combination departments.
The Task Force serves all fire and EMS departments including wildland, forestry and industrial.
We provide the following services:
- at need assistance when requested that includes funeral planning
- honor guard and ceremonial support services
- chaplaincy care and debriefing
- mental health care assistance/resources
- chief officer assistance
- survivor networking through state resources & the NFFF
- benefits filing assistance
- resource gathering and management
- long term assistance to the family and department
- education
- consulting
We are always looking for new members to join our team. If you have a heart for this type of service and feel that you can contribute in some way, please fill out this application and a letter of reference (fire and EMS service members below the rank of chief officer will need to provide a letter of support from a chief officer in the department) and mail it to: TX LODD Task Force, C/O Wendy Norris, PO Box 925, Friendswood, TX 77546 or you can email it to Wendy Norris. Because of the sensitive nature of benefits work and because of the confidential information that we must collect, Individuals who are interested in working with benefits and the filing of benefits on behalf of the family, must be willing to have a background check.
All of this information and all of the requirements needed to join the team sounds like a lot for a response team that volunteers their time to help. However, because of the sensitive nature of the event we are dealing with and because our team is privy to a lot of confidential information, it is extremely important that our team is made up of individuals who are full of integrity, honesty, and are supported by their departments. We do not want to have a chief that is not okay with one of his team members responding to a fatality for a 5 day stay. And we want to have individuals that we can trust with sensitive information.
The Texas LODD Task Force has partnered with the National Fallen Firefighter's Foundation LAST program in delivering quality support services to the survivors of line of duty deaths.
The Department of Justice also helps ease some of the financial burden of responding on a moment's notice by offering travel and expense reimbursement for team members.
NFFF LAST Brochure