196Declaration of incident

196 Declaration of incident (1) The Chief Commissioner or a Deputy Commissioner may, orally or in writing, declare an incident to be an incident requiring urgent cross-border assistance for the purposes of this Act. (2) In determining whether to make a declaration, the Chief Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner must have regard to— (a) the nature, urgency and seriousness of the incident; and (b) the adequacy of the resources and capabilities of Victoria Police to deal with the incident without the assistance of other jurisdictions; and (c) the expertise and assistance that could be expected to be provided by other jurisdictions. (3) A person who has made a declaration under this section must forward a copy of the declaration, or written confirmation of the declaration, to the Minister as soon as practicable, and in any event within 14 days, after making the declaration. (4) If a Deputy Commissioner makes a declaration under this section, he or she must forward a copy of the declaration, or written confirmation of the declaration, to the Chief Commissioner as soon as practicable. (5) Failure to comply with subsection (3) or (4) does not invalidate the declaration.