Family Liaison Officer (FLO)
Definition
A dedicated contact point between the investigation and the bereaved family, responsible for two-way information flow: collecting AM data from the family and communicating status updates and identification outcomes. In many DVI operations, nurses fill or support this role.
- Role
- Dedicated contact between investigation/DVI and bereaved family
- Core function
- Collects antemortem (AM) data, relays status updates
- Common background
- Often filled or supported by nurses in DVI operations
- Context
- Mass-casualty incident and disaster victim identification
Common questions
Why is a dedicated FLO role needed instead of investigators contacting families directly?+
Repeated contact by rotating investigators or scene staff can retraumatise families and produces inconsistent, poorly recorded information. A single trained liaison builds trust, gathers antemortem data in a structured way, and controls the timing and accuracy of what families are told.
What kind of information does an FLO collect from families for identification purposes?+
Antemortem data such as dental records, medical history, distinguishing features, clothing and jewellery descriptions, and reference DNA samples from relatives, all of which get compared against postmortem findings during the DVI identification process.
Related terms
- Ante-Mortem (AM) Data
- Information gathered from family members, medical providers, or records about the appearance, health history, dental treatment, and fingerprints of a person before...
- Disaster Victim Identification (DVI)
- The systematic process of identifying the deceased after a mass-casualty event using the INTERPOL DVI form sets, which standardise ante-mortem and post-mortem...
- Mass-Casualty Incident (MCI)
- An event that produces more casualties than available resources can immediately manage, requiring special coordination between emergency services, hospitals, morgues, and victim-identification...
- Post-Mortem (PM) Data
- Information collected from a recovered body or body fragment : physical description, dental examination, fingerprints, DNA profile, personal effects : used in...
- Secondary Traumatic Stress
- Psychological distress in responders resulting from exposure to others' trauma and death at mass-casualty events. Includes intrusive images, emotional numbing, hypervigilance, and...