The Incident Commander develops incident objectives. For the supporting coordination entities, these objectives may translate into requests for additional resources. One of the characteristics of complex incidents is that there may be competition for limited critical resources.

In order to allocate resources appropriately, the Emergency Operations Center and the MAC Group must be able to prioritize multiple incidents happening simultaneously.

MAC Groups are primarily responsible for resource prioritization and allocation. Unlike Unified Command, they do not perform incident command functions, nor do they replace the primary functions of operations, coordination, or dispatch organizations. When competition for resources is significant, MAC Groups may relieve the coordination and dispatch organizations of some prioritization and allocation responsibilities.

Life safety is the priority when making resource allocation decisions.